


For Your Entertainment

by themonokumafiles



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, also non despair au by the way, also the POV bounces around between characters, american high school theatre au if you want a name for it, don;t be turned off by the unknown amount of chapters i am definitely updating this thing, edit: author now regrets the long ass summary and they are sorry, it's an american high school because i don't know if japanese schools even have drama clubs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-15
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-03-30 14:51:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 57,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3940933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themonokumafiles/pseuds/themonokumafiles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's theatre season once again, and Hope's Peak Academy has just announced their spring musical; The Drowsy Chaperone. And when the new kid, Hajime Hinata, wins a main role in the cast, he's thrown together with a strange cast of characters, including Nidai, the overenthusiastic boy whom you might not expect to be as good as he is at directing, Kirigiri, the silent but skillful stage manager, Sayaka, the flirty girl who's perfectly suited to the spotlight, Sonia, the student who arrived from Europe last summer and captured everyone's hearts with her charm, Tanaka, the animal trainer and lover of the occult who displays an unexpected talent for the stage, Chiaki, the quiet and sleepy but dedicated gamer who runs the sound and lighting booth, Junko, the bubbly choreographer who scares the living hell out of everyone, and Ishimaru, the loud, uptight prefect who seems out of place onstage but has a neverending supply of enthusiasm to make up for it. Will the drama club of Hope's Peak be able to pull together a completely student-run musical in just two months? (Probably.) Will everyone retain their sanity? (Probably not.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hinata

**Author's Note:**

> i started this fic on the green room couch during opening night of our school musical. can you guess how i was inspired.  
> also i've written several fics in the past but this is my first time actually posting it for real people on the internet to read so roll with me here.  
> note: i would google the drowsy chaperone before reading if you've never seen the musical because if you don't you might get. really lost.  
> another note: this fic's POV bounces around from person to person, so each chapter's title is just the name of the narrator  
> yet another note: how do you write komaeda when he's not crazy about hope. how do you do it. OOC alert

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yooooo so i'm editing this chapter! bc i started this fic last year and i've improved a lot since then and i wanted to fix some of the stuff i feel like i did wrong  
> so if you're a reader of this fic, please check out the new chapter(s)! they're the same chapters, but i've improved some things here and there

School has just gotten out at Hope’s Peak Academy, and for the most part, the grounds are relatively deserted, save for the occasional janitor and the few clubs that meet after school hours. But in the auditorium, things are just getting started.

A month earlier, the drama club’s spring musical was announced. It was The Drowsy Chaperone, and the theatre kids had immediately bursted into activity as they scrambled to produce and practice audition songs. Now it’s audition day, and the auditorium is filled with faces both familiar and new as they chatter to their friends and hum notes nervously to themselves.

Hajime Hinata is one such new face. He sits alone in the first row of the theater, clutching his sheet music and regretting the decision to try out for the musical. This is his first year at Hope’s Peak Academy, and although he’s already made a few friends, and although they tell him he’s good enough at singing to get a role in the drama club, he’s definitely intimidated by some of these kids. Although a few other kids look to be in the same position as him, first timers with a low amount of self esteem, there are several kids who are obviously used to the auditioning process and expect to be main characters. For instance, Sayaka Maizono, who’s been doing theatre probably since birth, and has starred in just about every single show since middle school. Or Sonia Nevermind, the sweet and charismatic girl who grew up in Europe and moved to America last summer, instantly capturing the hearts of almost the entire school upon her arrival. She’s even convinced her boyfriend, a boy named Tanaka, to audition for this musical, and nobody knows how. Tanaka isn’t exactly the theatre type, although he’s certainly dramatic enough. Hinata doesn’t know anyone else here, but he figures he’ll know them soon enough. That is, if he lands a spot in the cast.

Hinata suddenly realizes he’s been staring at Sonia for longer than is probably socially acceptable. He quickly looks down at his sheet music. She’s currently talking to some of the other kids with animated hand movements and probably hasn’t noticed him.

Just then, one of the three people sitting on the edge of the stage stands up, cups his hands around his mouth and calls, “TEN MORE MINUTES AND WE’LL BEGIN AUDITIONS!” Scattered murmurs of assent float down from the assorted students before they go back to their conversations.

Hinata racks his brain and comes up with Nekomaru Nidai for a name. Although Nidai is probably the biggest person in his grade and seems like he’d fit in better with the football team than the drama kids, he’s a natural born leader, or so Hinata’s heard. He’s probably the director, which means the two people beside him would be the stage manager and choreographer.

There are two girls seated next to Nidai, neither of which are familiar to him. One has long hair that reaches almost to her waist and is a pale shade of lavender. She’s crossed her knees and propped her chin up on her hand, quietly watching the kids in the auditorium.

The other girl is vastly different. She has two blonde ponytails that seem to contain an entire can’s worth of hairspray, judging by how they curve up over her head. Aside from that, her outfit consists of an extremely short skirt, a shirt and tie, and combat boots. She taps her long red nails against the stage as she engages the long-haired girl in one-sided conversation, chewing bubblegum at the same time.

“Hi!” a voice chirps from beside Hinata, startling him out of his thoughts. He turns to see a boy sitting beside him, wearing a disarmingly friendly smile. He has fluffy white hair and a green hoodie, and Hinata vaguely recognizes him from algebra class.

When did he get there? Why didn’t Hinata hear him?

“You look new. Figured I’d introduce myself,” says the boy, sticking out his hand. “I’m Nagito Komaeda.”

“Hey,” says Hinata, shaking the proffered hand. “I’m Hajime Hinata. And...yeah, I’m new. I just moved here this year.”

“Nice,” Komaeda comments, sliding down in his audience chair and hooking his legs over the seat in front of him. “”You’re in my grade, right?”

“Yeah. Algebra II. You sit in my row.”

“Right, right! You know, it's a good thing you’re trying out for this show. A bunch of our good actors were seniors last year, and we need new members.”

“Who are those girls next to Nidai?” Hinata asks him. He figures he’ll clear up the mystery now. Komaeda must know; he’s obviously a regular member of the drama club.

The white-haired boy follows his gaze to the two girls in question. “Oh! Them. Well, the one on the left is Kirigiri. She’s the stage manager. And the one on the right is Junko, the choreographer. She’s, well…” Komaeda visibly shudders. “She’s an absolutely amazing choreographer, but she scares the fuck out of me.”

Good to know. Hinata promptly forms a mental checklist in his head. Number one: stay out of Junko’s way.

“You know anybody else here?”

“Yeah. I have classes with Tanaka, Sayaka, and Sonia, but that’s it,” Hinata replies.

“Alright, then I’ll tell you about everyone!” Komaeda says happily, sitting back up straight. “I’ve been in this program for a pretty long time, so I know everyone here. Okay, first there’s me. There’s not much remarkable about me, so we’ll just move on.” He points to someone in the third row before Hinata can say anything about the self-deprecating comment he slipped in there.

“That’s Naegi. He’s pretty much the nicest guy here, and a good singer besides that. We take voice lessons from the same teacher at the music school, you know. He’s friends with everyone. It’s pretty hard not to like Naegi.”

Komaeda moves on to a hyperactive-looking girl with pink and blue streaks in her hair, bouncing up and down in her seat next to a plump, sour-looking boy in white. “That’s Byakuya and Ibuki. Ibuki’s pretty great, and Byakuya...well, he’s hard to get used to, but once you get to know him he’s a good friend. There’s actually two Togamis in this school.”

“Two?” says Hinata. “So he has a sibling.”

“Actually, no, he’s an only child,” Komaeda corrects him. “See, there’s two boys named Byakuya Togami here. One is, I guess, the “real” Togami? He’s like, the richest kid in town. This Byakuya has the same name. We all _thought_ that he was the other one in our freshman year, but then the next year the actual Togami showed up and everyone lost their shit."

“So, is Byakuya Togami his real name?”

Komaeda shrugs. “We don’t know. But even the teachers use that name for him, so everyone just kind of got used to having both around. For all we know, it could actually be his name. If anyone would know, Ibuki might. She's the closest to him, what with them dating and all. But we've gotten used to not knowing. We generally refer to this one as Byakuya and the real one as Togami.”

These are a bunch of weird kids they have in the drama club. Hinata wonders if anyone as ordinary as himself can fit in.

“Okay….moving on. So who are they?” Hinata asks, gesturing to three more kids in the second row. They’re an odd trio; a small girl with blonde hair, a prefect with huge eyebrows who Hinata thinks he’s seen shouting at couples in the hallways, and a boy in a long black jacket and a ridiculously huge pompadour that defies gravity, pointing straight out in front of him. It reminds Hinata almost of a corncob.

Komaeda turns to face them. “The small one in the skirt is Chihiro. She’s like a computer whiz, and she normally does all the lighting and sound programming. She decided she wants to try out this year, but they made her promise to help out with the programming still, because, you know, where are we gonna find someone better than Chihiro? She used to be really shy in my freshman year, but now that she hangs out with Mondo and Ishimaru all the time, she’s changed a bit. They’re good for her, I think.”

Hinata points at the two boys next to Chihiro. “So I’m guessing that’s them?”

Komaeda cracks a knowing grin. “Exactly. Ishimaru has the huge eyebrows and Mondo has the pompadour. He’s a biker- I think his brother is the leader of a gang, true story- and Ishimaru’s a school prefect. And they are extremely gay for each other.”

Oh. Well. Okay.

“Good for them, I guess,” says Hinata, watching the pair. He wonders how tiny, timid Chihiro became friends with someone as intimidating as Mondo. And why a prefect would date a delinquent. There must be some weird backstory behind it. He wonders if he’ll ever get to hear it.

They do look happy, though; Mondo messes Chihiro’s hair affectionately and she laughs, before Ishimaru leans over to rest his head on Mondo’s shoulder and Mondo wraps one arm around his waist.

“I know a couple like that seems pretty unlikely,” Komaeda says, like he's reading Hinata's thoughts or something. “But they’re definitely dating, and they’re pretty cute. You know, I’ve actually never seen Ishimaru here before. He’s usually only on crew, because Mondo builds all the sets. Maybe he’s trying out to support Chihiro?” He tilts his head with a curious expression.

“Is there anyone else I should know about? There's a lot of people here,” says Hinata, head spinning as he tries to memorize all the new names.

“Oh, sorry! I talk far too long, don’t I? I’ll go faster, then!” says Komaeda, and laughs although the remark isn’t funny. Again, he’s moving right on before Hinata can comment.

“Alright, speed run...that’s Asahina, she’s a great swimmer, really nice girl...that’s Souda, he’s got this massive crush on Sonia, I think he’s mostly here to impress her...Fuyuhiko, you wouldn’t take him for the theatre type but he’s a good actor, actually. He's kind of hotheaded, but a good guy. That’s Peko next to him, she’s a stage hand and really good at kendo, like amazing, and they've been best friends since kindergarten. The redheaded one is Leon, not much of an actor but he can sing, and he’s been aggressively flirting with Sayaka for weeks...Hagakure, bit of a stoner, he’s friends with Souda and Leon...Koizumi, she’s the costumer, I think, I don’t know much more about her than that...Akane, she’s Nidai’s friend, he must have convinced her to try out because she’s great at gymnastics and dancing. The one with the pigtails is Hiyoko, she’s kind of rude sometimes but she can dance really well...Mukuro, that’s Junko’s sister, she’s the other stage hand...and I think that’s it. Oh, and that’s Chiaki and Mikan up there by the lighting board! I think you’d like them. Mikan and I have been friends since middle school, she’s more timid than even Fujisaki used to be but really sweet, and Chiaki’s really cool. If you want to talk to her, mention video games. She loves those. Chiaki is Fujisaki’s sister, she’s taking over the lighting and sound booth, and Mikan does spotlight.”

Komaeda leans back in his chair and does a rapid count-off on his fingers. “I think that’s everyone. So, yeah! That’s our drama club. You know, we’re so small that everyone will probably get in, so you won’t have to worry! It’s just a question of what part you have. It’ll be a tough competition. They’re all really talented people...heck, I feel privileged just to be part of such an amazing group!”   

Hinata thinks he remembers maybe two names out of everyone Komaeda just mentioned. He’s also getting increasingly uncomfortable with the self-deprecating comments Komaeda keeps making. “Listen, why do you keep saying that?”

Komaeda tilts his head in curiosity. “Saying what?”

“It’s just...you keep saying stuff like there’s nothing remarkable about you or that you’re privileged to be here. You seem fine to me. It’s just...weird to say that, is all.” It feels awkward to continue, so Hinata shuts up.

Komaeda turns faintly pink. “Sorry, I guess I don’t usually notice when I say that. Everyone mentions it, but I guess old habits die hard. I mean, they really are all so talented and I’m sure you are, too, but I’m not as good as that, you know, I’m--”

“Komaeda.”

Komaeda closes his mouth and offers him another disarming smile.

Hinata isn’t sure to feel about the friend he has just made. He’s certainly friendly enough, (and really cute, Hinata notes with a slight pang of embarrassment,) but the way he casually talks down to himself is weird. There’s just something about him that throws Hinata off a little bit.

But, he figures, Komaeda seems like a good friend, and having a friend in the drama club would be a good thing.

And then he has no time to think about it anymore, because Nidai stands up and shouts “EVERYONE ONSTAGE, PLEASE!”, and the auditorium is full of footsteps and crinkling sheet music and kids saying that they need five more minutes and Komaeda grabs Hinata’s arm and pulls him onto the stage with everyone else.

Nidai stands and faces them, a list of names in one hand. “Alright, welcome back to those of you who’ve been with us for our other shows!”

Most of the gathered students cheer, Komaeda included.

“And welcome, to those of you who are new to the drama club!” Nidai adds.

Sonia is standing right in front of Hinata, and he sees her stand on tiptoe to whisper excitedly to Tanaka.

“Now, as I’m sure most of you already know, we’re gonna begin with your singing auditions,” Nidai says. “And this year, Ibuki Mioda will be accompanying on piano!”

A few kids clap as Ibuki steps forward and takes an exaggerated bow before sitting down at the bench of the piano by the stage.

“Normally Ibuki would mix it up by having the prettiest person go first, but since Ibuki is already at the piano, let’s go in alphabetical order by last names!” she calls.

All eyes turn to Asahina, who groans good-naturedly and walks over to stand beside the piano, holding a few papers.

“Sheet music, please,” orders Ibuki, and Asahina deposits it neatly on the piano.

“Alright, I’m Aoi Asahina, and I’ll be singing Shy from Once Upon A Mattress,” she announces loudly, turning to face the others.

Hinata is too nervous to pay attention. If they’re going by last name, only Chihiro and Hagakure will be going before him after this.

When Asahina is finished, Chihiro goes after her, singing some kind of soft ballad, and then Hagakure, who does a song from a musical Hinata’s never heard of. But according to the confused whispering coming from the others, they’ve never heard of it either.

Then it’s his turn. He clears his throat, introduces himself, and sings through his song (very well, if the delighted expression on Ibuki’s face as she pounds away at the piano is anything to go by). He'd picked a song he already knew- What Do I Need With Love, from Thoroughly Modern Millie.

There’s polite applause when he’s done. As Hinata passes Naegi, standing at the front, he gives Hinata a thumbs up and a grin.

“Hinata,” says Komaeda as he returns to his spot, “you’re really good.”

He can feel a blush creeping to the tops of his cheeks and ears. “Um, thanks.”

Fuyuhiko suddenly speaks up from behind him. "Yo, Hinata," he says, elbowing Hinata in the shoulder. “Nice job, you know, for your first audition.”

Hinata can’t tell if that’s a compliment or not, so he just says, “Thanks,” and Fuyuhiko nods.

After Hinata comes Ishimaru, who looks extremely nervous.

Ibuki winks at him as she asks for his sheet music, Hinata guesses as her method of making him feel more at ease, but it doesn’t seem to work. When Ishimaru turns to face the others, his face is bright red to the tips of his ears. He opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again. His gaze flicks nervously up to the audience somewhere.

Hinata twists around to see. It’s Mondo, sitting in the audience and giving the thumbs up.

He turns back around. Ishimaru smiles faintly, then directs his gaze back at the group of students and clears his throat.

“I’m Kiyotaka Ishimaru,” he says loudly, “and I’m singing This Is the Moment, from, er, from Jekyll and Hyde.”

It’s clear that this is Ishimaru’s first audition, even to Hinata, but his singing is good enough to carry his song despite his obvious nervousness. He even receives high fives from a few kids as he walks back to rejoin them, cheeks flushed and smiling.

Komaeda is next, and Hinata realizes with a sudden shock that he’s befriended one of the _good_ theatre kids.

Before he even starts, Ibuki reaches under the piano and pulls out a pair of drumsticks, which Komaeda takes; he must have been keeping them under there.

“Hey, nobody told me we could bring props!” Sonia calls. “You cheater, Komaeda!”

Komaeda only mock-shrugs and chirps, “Nobody told me we couldn’t!”

And his singing is amazing. The song is from Rent, called Today For You, and while Ibuki plays, Komaeda drums on the piano, complete with hip shaking. (Hinata’s stomach twists in a weird way when he does that.) More than a few kids laugh when Komaeda points at Naegi during the line about “back on the street, where I met my sweet”, and his song ends with laughter and several claps.

Komaeda edges through the crowd and rejoins Hinata, who has to think of something to say. “That was, uh. Really good, Komaeda.”

“Thanks!” Komaeda replies, beaming. “I didn’t really do as well as I normally do, though. I procrastinated until a week ago to get this ready, can you believe it?”

Believe that Komaeda was able to prepare that in a week? Nope. Maybe if Hinata hangs around these kids long enough, their super abilities will rub off on him.

The rest of the auditions pass quickly; Hinata isn’t paying attention to a lot of them, because to his eternal shame, the image of Komaeda shaking his hips and drumming on the piano keeps popping into his head.

The people who get the most enthusiastic applause from the others are, for the most part, the people Hinata had predicted; Komaeda, Sayaka, Naegi, Sonia, and Tanaka.

The last one came out of the blue; nobody (except, presumably, Sonia, who was the one to convince him to audition in the first place) has heard him sing before. The song is apparently Don’t Let Me Go from Shrek (Hinata hadn’t even known Shrek had a musical), and Tanaka delivers an amazing performance that takes everyone by surprise. He must have been practicing for a really long time, Hinata thinks, and when he is finished Nidai nods, impressed, and jots something down.

Tanaka returns to his seat with a rare smile on his face, and Sonia kisses his cheek when he drops into his chair.

When the last person, Byakuya, is finished, Nidai gives a once-over to his list of scribbled notes and says, “The last part of our audition is dance! Junko?” He gestures to her, and Junko waves cheerily at the audience. Her grin is a few molars too wide, and Hinata supposes he can see how she freaks Komaeda out.

“Hey, everyone!” she greets them, taking Nidai’s place in front of them. “Who’s ready to dance?”

Some kids cheer, but some groan.

Yeah, Hinata pretty much sucks at dancing. The number of moves Junko teaches them is short but grueling, although a lot of the other kids don’t seem to have a problem with it at all. Junko kicks, twirls, and stomps, her arms angled just right, and the students follow suit. Some with ease, and some...not. At least Hinata doesn’t lose his balance and fall; Souda ends up on the floor three times.

Hinata regrets the decision to wear a long sleeved shirt; by the end of the exercise, it feels like someone’s cranked up the thermostat twenty degrees. He wishes he had water.

“Well, that’s it!” Junko chirps, looking exactly as perky and refreshed as she did when they started. “You can sit now!”

As Hinata watches, swaying on his feet, Sayaka and Naegi imitate the kick they had to do earlier and burst into laughter, not looking tired or sweaty in the least.

These kids are not human. They can’t be.

“You okay?” says Komaeda, and Hinata turns to see him looking concerned. He holds out a metal water bottle, and Hinata doesn’t like sharing water bottles, but damn if he doesn’t grab it and drink half the water. Komaeda just laughs, and says, “Yeah, the first time is always hard!”

Nidai, who’s been talking to Kirigiri and Junko onstage, finally turns around to address everyone again.

“Right, everyone, you are now free to go! The cast list will be posted on the bulletin board in the music wing by Friday!” It’s Wednesday now, Hinata notes, so that’s two days of waiting.

Everyone stands and begins gathering their stuff, which has been left all over the aisles. As Hinata bends over to grab his backpack, Komaeda says, “Hey, what’s your number?”

“What?” Hinata straightens and turns around to face him.

Komaeda holds up his phone expectantly. “Number? Your phone number. The number that one can dial onto their cellular device to instantly reach your cellular device. That number.”

“What amazing technology we have nowadays,” Hinata deadpans, and gives Komaeda the number.

Komaeda enters it into his contacts and puts his phone away. “Alright, first person to reach the cast list on Friday morning calls and tells the other their role, deal?”

“Deal,” Hinata agrees, and watches his new friend bound up the auditorium steps.

“Hey, Hinata,” says a voice from behind him. He spins around. It’s Sonia, holding Tanaka’s hand.

“Hey, Sonia,” he replies, but then feels he needs to say something more. “Great performance out there.”

“Thank you, Hinata!” she replies, beaming. “I just wanted to tell you that I thought your song was very good. I’ve never heard you sing before!”

“We have choir together.”

Sonia blushes slightly. “Well, I mean, I’ve never heard you sing _alone.”_

Which sounds suspiciously like she’d forgotten they had class together, but Hinata decides to give her a pass. He isn’t exactly the most memorable person, and she’s right; he never raises his hand to try solos.

“Well, thanks. You did really well too, Tanaka.”

Tanaka nods and tugs at his scarf, looking away. “Thank you, Hinata.”

“Oh, Gundam, you’re embarrassed,” teases Sonia. “You shouldn’t be. That was absolutely wonderful.”

Tanaka flushes outright. “I appreciate your sentiment, she-cat,” he murmurs.

Hinata’s beginning to feel a bit like a third wheel, so he excuses himself and follows the rest of the students out of the auditorium. His house isn’t far from the school, so he walks home, thinking about all the kids he met today, but admittedly mostly about Komaeda. As he reaches his front door, his phone buzzes; it turns out to be a text from Komaeda himself.

_Hey its me!_ _If u meet me by the cafeteria door tomorrow at lunch I can introduce you to Chiaki and Mikan._ _Night :)_

Hinata goes to sleep that night feeling better than he has in a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you read this much i'd love for you to leave a kudos or a comment and tell me what you like/don't like so far! also i love you cries
> 
> i decided to make nanami and fujisaki siblings bc in sdr2 nanami says alter ego is her brother and alter ego is basically the same as fujisaki so??? they have different last names but then so do junko and mukuro sO
> 
> also i'd just like to point out that in this fic chihiro does identify as male, but it's still a secret like in the game, so only nanami, ishimaru, and mondo know  
> 


	2. Hinata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you guys are all being so sweet i honestly didn;t expect many people to read this??? thank you all

It’s Friday morning.

Hinata bursts through the doors of the school, accidentally hitting a boy standing off to the side when he swings the door open. Shouts of indignance follow him down the hallway and he calls a hurried apology over his shoulder as he keeps running.

For the last two days, he’s barely been able to sleep. Every time he thinks about the cast list that’s waiting in the music wing, his stomach does a flip. There’s still half an hour until school starts, so he should be able to get there, read the list, and have plenty of time to call Komaeda.

He turns a corner and sees a girl ahead of him, seemingly in the same hurry he is. Upon closer examination, it’s Sonia, sprinting down the hall, presumably towards the music wing.

“Sonia!” he shouts, and she looks back and slows to a fast walk so he can catch up to her.

“Hello, Hinata,” she greets him, brushing several strands of blonde hair behind one ear. “May I assume you’re headed to the same place I am?”

“Yeah, I can’t wait to see the cast list,” Hinata tells her.

“Well, best of luck. I’m positive you’ll get a good role. Hey, I’ll race you there!” Sonia says suddenly, a wicked gleam in her eyes, and before he can protest she’s gone, surprisingly fast for a girl in heels.

He breaks back into a run with a smile on his face. It’s not hard to see why everyone likes Sonia Nevermind.

~

When Hinata reaches the music wing, several minutes later and gasping for breath, Sonia is standing by the bulletin board with a huge smile. “Check the list, you slowpoke!” she urges him by way of greeting, pushing him towards the paper tacked on it.”

Hinata reads it.

**_Cast_ **

_**Man In Chair** : Nagito Komaeda_

_**Robert Martin** : Hajime Hinata_

_**Janet Van de Graaff:** Sayaka Maizono_

_**The Drowsy Chaperone** : Sonia Nevermind_

_**George** : Makoto Naegi_

_**Mr. Feldzieg** : Byakuya Togami_

_**Kitty** : Ibuki Mioda_

_**Aldolpho** : Gundam Tanaka_

_**Mrs. Tottendale** : Chihiro Fujisaki_

_**Underling** : Kiyotaka Ishimaru_

_**Gangsters** : Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu, Kazuichi Souda_

_**Trix the Aviatrix** : Aoi Asahina_

_**Ensemble** : Leon Kuwata, Akane Owari, Hiyoko Saionji, Yasuhiro Hagakure_

 

He has to read it again. And a few more times after that. It feels as though someone’s just kicked him in the stomach, and having run all the way to the music wing doesn’t help. If the roles are listed by order of importance, he’s just landed himself a main role in the musical. And Komaeda has, too. He’ll have to call him.

Finally he spins to face Sonia, who’s clearly been impatient for him to finish. “Congratulations, Hinata!” she cries, and raises her hand or a high five.

Hinata gives her one. Sonia spins around in excitement and bends to check the cast list again, just to make sure nobody’s changed it in the last five seconds.

“Is Robert Martin a good role? It’s at the top of the list,” Hinata says to her. He’s pretty sure it is, but he doesn’t fully believe it until she nods to him enthusiastically.

“Robert Martin is the dashing heir to an oil syndicate who’s engaged to Janet Van De Graaff, a star showgirl who’s giving up her stardom to be married,” Sonia recites, stars in her eyes. “This is so great! I’m so happy for you, Hinata!” She gives him a huge grin.

So somebody thought he’d be good at playing a dashing bridegroom. That’s something to be proud of.

“I’ve never seen this show. Who are the other characters?” he asks Sonia.

“Of course!” she chirps. “Okay, so this is kind of like a show within a show. The main character is the Man In Chair. He’s a lonely guy who’s at his apartment alone and decides to put on a record of his favorite show, The Drowsy Chaperone. While he listens he keeps up running commentary to the audience. In that show, the rest of us are the characters. You’re the guy marrying Janet, like I said earlier. The wedding is at the house of the rich and slightly batty Mrs. Tottendale. She’s always followed by her butler, Underling. Naegi is playing George, your best man. I’m Janet’s chaperone and maid of honor. She’s an alcoholic who constantly steals the scene from everyone else. Mr. Feldzieg is the director of Feldzieg’s Follies, the show Janet stars in. He’s trying to stop the wedding so he can keep her on the stage. He’s accompanied by Kitty, his...um, I think she’s his mistress, but they never say. She’s a ditzy flapper girl who is trying to prove that she can replace Janet. Then there’s two gangsters. They’re there to make sure Mr. Feldzieg successfully gets Janet back, because their boss is one of the investors of the show and will lose money if the show fails. There’s also Aldolpho, a self-proclaimed Latin lover who’s there for some unexplained reason, and Trix the Aviatrix, a pilot who shows up at the end to transport the couple to their honeymoon.”

Sonia finishes her speech and nods, satisfied. “Did that about cover it?”

It sounds as though she’s just recited the entire contents of a Wikipedia page. Hinata almost regrets asking.

“Thanks, Sonia!” he says, not wanting to disappoint her.

“Anytime!” Suddenly her eyes widen as she realizes something. “Ooh, I forgot there’s a scene where Aldolpho tries to seduce the Chaperone. We have a song together! I have to tell Gundam!” She quickly whips out her phone and dials a number.

That reminds Hinata that he’s supposed to be calling Komaeda right now.

He selects the contact in his phone. It rings a few times before someone picks up. “...Hello?” Komaeda’s voice is low and heavy with sleep.

“Dude, are you seriously still in bed? It’s twenty minutes until first bell!”

“Hinata?” There’s a sharp gasp on the other end. “Oh god, have you seen the cast list yet? What did we get?”

Hinata turns and squints at the list again. “You got Man In Chair, and I got Robert Martin. Sonia says they’re main characters, so congratulations!”

Silence.

“...Komaeda? Hello?”

“ _Yes!_ ” screams Komaeda from the other end, and Hinata actually drops the damn phone.

“I can’t believe it! This is awesome!” continues the white-haired boy obliviously as Hinata performs an impressive catch before his phone hits the floor.

“Yeah, see, I told you you were good,” he tells Komaeda when he gets the phone back to his ear.

“Thanks! Hey, see you in a bit, Hinata, I gotta get ready for school! Congratulations!”

There’s a small click.

Hinata puts his phone away and heads for class, head practically spinning with excitement.

~

Everyone is buzzing with news of the cast list by lunchtime. When Hinata passes Chihiro in the hallway and stops to tell her, she screams and jumps up and down before gasping that she has to tell Ishimaru and rapidly disappearing. From what Komaeda reports as they meet each other in the cafeteria, Tanaka got a text from Sonia halfway through chemistry and actually jumped up and ran out of the room in the middle of the teacher’s explanation of empirical formulas. Even Fuyuhiko was seen running out of the music wing with Peko just before school started, whooping loudly. Almost everyone is excited by the news, and numerous people Hinata passes yell their congratulations and give him high fives. He could get used to this.

“I saw Souda in gym class,” Komaeda tells Hinata as they sit down at their usual table. “He was complaining about having to work with Fuyuhiko before Nidai told him not to be unprofessional, but he talked more after class. Apparently he thinks it’s worth it if he can be in the musical with Sonia. Honestly, I don’t think he could be more blind if he stared at the sun for twelve hours. Oh, hey!”

Komaeda cuts off his chatter as he waves to Chiaki and Mikan, who have just arrived.

“G-good to see you!” squeaks Mikan, setting her lunchbag on the table.

“Hello, Komaeda, Hinata,” murmurs Chiaki, balancing her tray in one hand as she sits. She’s got a 3DS and taps away at the screen with the stylus as soon as her tray is on the table. For the past two days Hinata has been eating lunch with the two girls and Komaeda. Mikan is, as described, a nervous wreck of a girl, but according to Komaeda she’s lovely to be around once you get her to open up. Chiaki, on the other hand, is calm and quiet. She doesn’t say much, but when she does it’s usually something thoughtful and profound. Get her on the topic of video games, however, and Hinata’s learned she can hold conversations for hours.

“Hey, Chiaki,” Hinata says as he scoots over to see the screen. “Are you playing Pokemon?”

“Yeah,” replies Chiaki. She taps the Mega Evolution button on the screen and her Blaziken (which she’s apparently named Groose) launches an attack. “It’s the Alpha Sapphire version. I got it last week and it’s really great.”

“Did you s-see the cast list yet?” Mikan asks, unwrapping a sandwich.

“Yeah!” bursts Komaeda, slapping his palms flat on the table and leaning forward. “I can’t believe it! Mikan, you have to come with me tomorrow and watch us rehearse, okay?”

“Sure I will,” she answers with a small smile. “C-congratulations to you, too, Hinata! You m-must be really proud…”

“Thanks, Mikan,” Hinata answers, and watches her smile grow. She really is a sweet girl.

Komaeda chatters aimlessly about this and that for the rest of lunch, with occasional comments from Mikan and Hinata and quiet “m-hm”s from Chiaki, still absorbed in her Pokemon game.

Finally the bell rings. Komaeda cuts himself off and looks up.

“Lunch is over, I guess. Hey, first rehearsal on Monday!” he reminds them, eyes wide and excited. “Mikan, you said you’d be there. Chiaki, you gonna come?”

The gamer yawns loudly as she closes her 3DS and slips it into her pocket. “Sure I will. I have to come watch Chihiro anyway...so I suppose I’ll see you all then?”

“Yes!” Komaeda cheers. “Alright, see you all on Monday! Come on, Mikan, we’ve got English!” He grabs her hand, and she squeals in protest and laughs as he runs away, dragging her behind him.

“See you on Monday, Hinata,” Chiaki says, and Hinata returns the favor before she leaves.

Great. Waiting for the cast list and now waiting for Monday. It’s going to be a long weekend.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i call this chapter "sonia does exposition"  
> but next chapter is the first rehearsal and it should also be longer so do not worry!


	3. Hinata

“Kazuichi Souda!”

“Here.”

“Gundam Tanaka!”

“Present.”

“Byakuya Togami!”

“Here.”

Nidai tosses his clipboard aside to address the circle of students, each holding a new script.

“Alright, everyone! If you don’t know me, my name is Nekomaru Nidai, and I’m going to be your director for the next two months. If you need anything, talk to me or my stage manager, Kyouko Kirigiri!” The director gestures to Kirigiri, who silently holds up a hand to identify herself.

“The plan for the next two months is pretty simple. Today we’re going to try to read and sing through all the songs in the show and for the next two weeks we’ll be working on just the music. When we know our songs back to front, we’ll move on to choreography and blocking, and on show week we’ll work with props, mikes, and costumes! If everyone puts forth their best effort and works together with their castmates, we can achieve anything! I assume you’ve all listened to the music over the weekend?”

Everyone nods, so Nidai pulls out a CD player from the closet. “We’re going to do Fancy Dress, the scene where the guests arrive for the wedding, but we’ll skip straight to Robert’s piece today,” he calls. “Everyone stand up!”

There’s the sound of scraping chairs and groans. After a few moments, music begins playing.

Hinata straightens in his seat, one hand tapping against his leg to count the measures until his entrance.

“I’m Robert, the bridegroom! I’m here to marry Janet, the star of Feldzieg’s Follies whom I love a lot!”

Next is Naegi. “I’m George, that’s George! His best man George! I’m honored to be doing what a best man ought!”

Everyone does pretty well considering it’s their first time singing together. Byakuya and Ibuki do exaggerated New York accents, Ibuki perfectly playing the ditzy showgirl. Fuyuhiko and Souda keep trying to one-up each other as the gangsters disguised as pastry chefs, each verse louder than the last. Tanaka sings with an overdramatic accent as the Latin lover Aldolpho, Sayaka steals the scene with her entrance as Janet, and Sonia sprawls across her seat as she drawls the Chaperone’s lyrics dramatically. Finally Asahina belts out Trix’s solo, and everyone starts tripping over the words and melodies as the complicated chorus begins, while Komaeda talks over the song in his monologue. The song ends with most of the cast members having given up on trying to keep up with the music. Everyone begins laughing and talking over each other as it ends.

“Alright, that was a bit of a mess at the end there, but we’ll soon get it with practice!” bellows Nidai enthusiastically. “Moving on! Let’s go straight to Toledo Surprise!”

Everyone sits down, leaving Fuyuhiko, Souda, Byakuya, and Ibuki to suffer alone.

“Nice job, Hinata,” whispers Chihiro, who’s sitting directly to his right.

“You too,” he whispers back, and she blushes and smiles.

After Toledo Surprise--another disaster, but everyone was expecting it on their first day--Nidai calls a water and snack break. Hinata scans the auditorium for Komaeda and finds him sitting with Chiaki, Mikan, Chihiro, and Ishimaru on one of the top floor tiers.

“Hey, Hinata!” Komaeda shouts as he sees him making his way up the stairs. The others wave as Hinata takes a seat between the Komaeda and Chiaki.

“We were just reciting lines,” Chihiro says, holding up her script. “Care to join us?”

“Yes!” agrees Ishimaru. “You should join us!”

Hinata sits down with them and practices lines. It turns out casting Ishimaru as the Underling was a brilliant move; he’s a good singer but lacks emotion, which is pretty much perfect for the butler. Chihiro helps him every time he trips up and vice versa, while Komaeda runs through Hinata’s lines with him, since all of Komaeda’s own lines are monologues.

“Hey, can you rollerskate?” Komaeda asks him a while later, flipping through his script.

“Why?” Hinata asks, leaning over his shoulder to see what he’s looking at.

“It says here that in one scene Robert rollerskates around the stage while blindfolded,” Komaeda says.

“What? No fucking way. You’re kidding me.”

“See for yourself!” Komaeda laughs in protest. Hinata leans down and squints at the sentence he’s pointing at. Sure enough, the stage directions say he skates on while wearing a blindfold and remains like that for the entire scene.

“Does Nidai want me to kill myself?” he asks in disbelief, which elicits a laugh from Komaeda.

“Wait, really?” asks Chihiro from across the circle, and suddenly everyone’s crowding around the two boys to see the script.

“Well, it w-was nice knowing you, Hinata,” says Mikan doubtfully, and Chiaki giggles. Hinata begins rethinking the decisions that led to this point in his life.

~

The next two weeks pass quickly. Rehearsals are every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and Hinata spends almost an hour each day trying to memorize his lines. He doesn’t see much of most of the cast members, save for Naegi and Sayaka, whom he has duets with, and Komaeda, whom he eats lunch with.

Naegi is, as Komaeda told him, one of the nicest students in the school. He can be a bit of a pushover sometimes, but he’s as optimistic as can be and has an infectious smile. Sayaka, on the other hand, is bold and flirty. When Hinata asks how many times she’s been in shows, she tells him thirty since she was six, and she’s sixteen now, which when he calculates turns out as three shows a year. It’s almost dizzying, the way she effortlessly slips into character as the show-offy Janet Van de Graaff, and of course she sings her parts extremely well. Naegi confesses one day that he’s had a crush on Sayaka since middle school, but that he doubts she’s noticed him much.

Hinata can see why Naegi finds her attractive, but he doesn’t really feel the same way himself. Actually, if he’s going to be perfectly honest with himself, he thinks Komaeda is really cute. There’s just something about his hair and his eyes and his laugh that Hinata finds attractive. He’s not even really sure why, but he does know that when they’re sitting at lunch and Komaeda laughs at something Mikan says, his heart does a flip in his chest. It’s getting increasingly annoying.

“Hey, Chiaki,” Hinata asks one day at rehearsal. They’re in the middle of As We Stumble Along, Sonia’s song, and everyone except for her and Komaeda is watching from the audience seats. “How can you tell if you have a crush on someone?”

Yeah, he’s a sophomore in high school, but he’s never actually had a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. This is relatively new ground for Hinata, and although Chiaki doesn’t seem to be well-versed in relationships, she is the easiest to talk to about stuff like this.

Chiaki pauses her game and peers up at Hinata. He looks away innocently.

“Well, I’m not sure,” she murmurs. “Do you find them attractive?”

“Yeah,” Hinata replies.

“Is it hard to concentrate on other things when they’re nearby?” He sneaks a glance out of the corner of his eye. She’s hiding a smile. He has a sneaking suspicion she can tell.

“Yeah.” Almost subconsciously, he stares down at the stage, where Komaeda jumps out of his chair onstage and hurries over to sing alongside Sonia as the song reaches its climax.

“Would you date them?”

“Probably.”

“...It’s Komaeda, isn’t it.”

So she does know. “Whaaat? Psssh. No.”

Chiaki stares at him seriously, then loses her composure and starts laughing.

“Am I that transparent?” Hinata asks her, disappointed.

She laughs harder.

“It’s not _funny_ ,” he protests, although the urge to laugh himself is growing.

Finally Chiaki quiets, wiping her eyes. “To answer your question...yes, you are that transparent,” she tells him. “I’ve noticed the way you look at him all the time.”

“All the time? Come on, Chiaki, it’s been like a week!”

“Don’t worry,” she says, and puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “For what it’s worth, I think you two are really cute. You should go for it.”

“Go for it? Is he even gay?”

“Oh, yes,” she says, completely serious. “I can tell you right now he definitely is.”

Hinata squirms in his audience chair. “Well, maybe. I don’t know.”

He glances down at Komaeda again, and notices how his white hair looks almost like a halo under the stage lights.

He is so very screwed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is it. chapter 3 and already the gay otp begins.
> 
> also we've been seeing a lot from hinata but the POV might be changing next chapter....hint hint....


	4. Chiaki

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the long-awaited next chapter is heeere  
> also sorry for the wait guys, i just had auditions for shrek the musical so that's why i haven;t written much in the past few weeks!

She’s sitting in the audience, watching Hinata and Naegi practice their song, when she hears the doors at the back of the audience open and close quietly. Footsteps creak down the steps until they reach her row. When she turns to see who it is, Mikan slips into the seat next to her and gives her a shy smile as she plunks her bag down. “Hi, Chiaki,” she whispers, so as not to disturb the cast members onstage.

“Hey, Mikan,” Chiaki whispers back.

“What did I m-miss?” Mikan murmurs quietly.

‘Not much. Komaeda did his opening monologue, and now they’re singing Cold Feets.”

“Good.” Mikan settles down to watch with Chiaki, and the two girls are content to sit in silence for a few minutes until the song ends. They clap when it’s over, Nidai calls a two-minute break, and Chiaki watches as Hinata immediately heads for a seat beside Komaeda. They begin talking and laughing almost instantly. Suddenly, she finds herself thinking about what Hinata told her several days ago, and there’s a brief interlude in which she wonders whether Mikan should know.

“Did you know Hinata confessed his crush to me last week?”

Mikan’s eyes widen on cue, and she twists in her seat to stare at Chiaki.

“You mean on y- _you?”_

Chiakk laughs and shakes her head. Although, she muses briefly, that would be interesting. She isn’t sure what she would have done if Hinata had confessed a crush on her.

“Nope. Guess again.”

Mikan's eyes flick down to the front row, where Hinata’s sitting.

“Komaeda.”

Chiaki grins. “Ding, ding, ding! Winner!” She taps Mikan’s nose with one finger, the other girl giggling and scrunching down in her seat to escape. Then she peers over the seat at Hinata again.

“I can see it,” she says after a minute. “L-look at those nerds down there.”

Chiaki does. They’re far enough away from the two boys that anything they say is indistinct, but they can see Komaeda, throwing back his head and laughing at something Hinata’s just said.

“Nerds,” she agrees. “I’ll bet you real money they’ll be dating by opening night.”

The edge of Mikan’s mouth curls upward into a smile. “How much?”

“Well, that was a joke, but…” Chiaki digs in her pocket. “I have ten dollars.”

“You’re on,” decides Mikan, with a somewhat malevolent grin. 

~

A nerd Hinata may be, but the truth is, Chiaki’s no better. She’s been nursing a crush on Mikan for almost three months now, although she prides herself on being far less transparent about her feelings than Hinata. (And while she’s on the subject, who does Hinata think he’s kidding? She’s pretty sure the entire cast has seen them running around together, and the way he turns pink whenever anyone says Komaeda’s name. Please.)

She’s good at keeping her feelings hidden from anyone but herself, or so she'd like to think; most people see her as sleepy and/or emotionless, and so they assume there's nothing going through her head. The reality is that her mind is usually racing with thoughts of up to four or five different things at a time. It comes from years of paying attention to conversations while playing whatever game is currently in her hand, so Chiaki has excellent multitasking ability.

Which is why she’s playing Alpha Sapphire, listening to the cast rehearse, and wondering what she should do about Mikan, all at the same time, and yet passersby wouldn't look twice at the sleepy-looking girl with a 3DS. She stays like this for an hour or so while Mikan slowly falls asleep in her chair.

Finally both girls are jolted fully awake by the sound of Nidai shouting, “Good work, everyone! Remember that there is no rehearsal tomorrow, so we’ll meet again on Friday! You are all free to go!”

The cast members call goodbyes as they slowly gather their things from the first few audience rows. After about five minutes, she hears footsteps and looks up to see Komaeda and Hinata approaching.

“Hey, girls,” greets Komaeda, and drinks the last swallow of his water bottle.

“Hi!” Mikan replies, getting out of her chair to stretch her arms over her head. “How long have I b-been asleep?”

“About thirty minutes,” murmurs Chiaki, eyes still fixed on her Blaziken. Hinata kneels on a seat in the row behind her and peers over her shoulder as she launches an attack at the leader of Team Aqua.

“How was rehearsal, then?” Mikan murmurs, already looking sleepy again. “Since I m-missed a bunch of stuff.”

“It was boring. I barely did anything but sit in my chair onstage,” Komaeda complains. He casts a dirty look at the armchair somebody dragged in from the green room, still positioned onstage from rehearsal.

“Well, that’s your life for the next three months, so you better get used to that chair,” Hinata says, only half-jokingly.

“Yeah, yeah,” Komaeda shoots back. Suddenly his face lights up as he moves on to a new idea. “Hey, guys, since there’s no rehearsal tomorrow, I was thinking everybody could come to my house and play video games or something! Although I’d probably come in last, it would be fun to play anyway! What do you think?”

“Everyone, like, everyone?” Mikan says, gesturing to the cast with one arm.

He laughs. “No, no, of course not! They wouldn’t all fit in my house anyway. Maybe just us four and a couple others.”

Chiaki considers it, and finds the idea appealing. Although she likes alone time, playing video games at Komaeda’s with her friends sounds infinitely more entertaining than playing them alone at home. “I could probably come,” she says, “but Chihiro might want to come too. And she’d probably want to bring Ishimaru and Mondo with her.”

Komaeda waves his hand. “Not a problem. As long as Mondo doesn’t go around breaking stuff.”

Chiaki rolls her eyes, but only slightly.

“As long as I don’t what?” says a voice from right behind Komaeda, and Chiaki watches him jump practically a foot in the air. He spins around to see Chihiro, Ishimaru, and Mondo standing together, and visibly panics until he notices the smirk on Mondo’s face.

“Chill,” Mondo reassures him. “What did you think I would do, punch you?”

“Maybe,” confesses Komaeda, face cracking into a smile. Probably out of relief that his nose will remain intact.

“What was that about video games?” asks Chihiro. “Are we invited?”

“Sure, if you want,” Hinata says.

Mondo shrugs. “Sounds fun, I guess. I could go for Mario Kart or something.”

Ishimaru speaks up for the first time since joining the group. “I’m not sure if I can join you,” he confesses. “I have a lot of studying to do.”

Mondo claps him on the shoulder. “Come on, Kiyo. You can leave the textbooks for one afternoon, right?"

Ishimaru fidgets. “Well...maybe I could be convinced,” he says after a few moments of silence. “But I don’t know if my parents would be too pleased if they found out I was playing video games when I could have gotten in a few hours of preparation.” He doesn’t say he won’t go, though, and Chiaki considers it a victory. Quite a big one, actually, because she can’t remember him ever agreeing to go out with Mondo and Chihiro on a school night.

“I’m in, too!” agrees Chihiro with a sunny smile.

“So that’s settled. Mikan, are you coming?” Komaeda asks. Mikan only nods in response, already apparently so tired that speech has surpassed her. Chiaki is surprised--usually she’s the one nodding off in the middle of a conversation.

“Okay, so that’s…” Komaeda ticks off the people on his fingers. “Six...seven. Seven is a good number. So I’ll see you all tomorrow, then?”

“Sure. Come on, Kiyotaka, I’ll give you a ride,” Mondo says. Ishimaru nods and grasps his hand as they leave together, pausing to wave to everyone before they exit.

“Actually, Komaeda,” Hinata says, getting up from his chair. “Are you walking home today?”

“Yeah, why?” says Komaeda, bending over to grab his backpack. Chiaki’s metaphorical ears perk up, and she pays them attention, although she makes sure to remain staring at her 3DS as though distracted.

“Well,” Hinata says, fiddling with the strap of his bag, “I live in that direction too, so I was wondering if maybe you wanted to walk together?”

Komaeda stands back upright, staring at the ground in thought for a few minutes. Finally he looks up and smiles at Hinata.

“I’m surprised you would want to walk with me,” he says quietly, and cuts off the beginning of Hinata’s exasperated eye roll with, "But I’d like that, thanks!”

“Cool,” says Hinata. He lets out a breath Chiaki hadn’t realized he was holding. “Okay. Great, then!”

“Should we leave now?” Komaeda says, and Hinata nods.

“Bye, Chiaki, Mikan,” he says, turning back to them. “Bye, Chihiro.”

“See you both tomorrow!” chirps Chihiro, waving. Komaeda and Hinata wave, then turn and head up the aisle the same way Ishimaru and Mondo did a few minutes before.

Chiaki twists in her seat so she can watch them until they pass through the door, then whips back around and shakes Mikan’s shoulder. She has to shake it, because Mikan’s actually asleep. “You missed it,” she tells the girl.

Mikan’s eyelids flutter and she yawns. “Missed w-wha?”

“Komaeda and Hinata left,” the gamer tells her. “Together.”

Mikan’s eyes open all the way, and she, too, sits up to peer in the direction the boys left. “T-together, like, together?”

“Yep,” Chiaki tells her proudly. “And you missed it.”

Mikan slumps back into her seat with a groan. “Oh man. They’re gonna d-date now, and I don’t h-have ten dollars to lose,” she complains.

Chiaki laughs. “You should have thought of that before you gambled against me,” she teases.

Chihiro joins them, messenger bag slung over his shoulder. “What are you talking about?”

Chiaki turns to her brother. “We’ve got a bet going on how long it will take Komaeda and Hinata to get together,” she explains.

“Hm.” Chihiro bites his lower lip in thought. "If you asked me I'd say a few weeks, tops."

“See?” Chiaki tells Mikan.

“Yeah, yeah, you were right, w-whatever,” Mikan retorts. “I have to go meet my mom, so I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you,” Chiaki says as a goodbye, and they wave to each other.

“You ready to go, too?” Chihiro asks, as the auditorium door swings shut.

Chiaki nods, but her mind is on Hinata and Komaeda as she gathers her things.

Mikan is _so_ going to owe her ten bucks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry chiaki ishimaru you both deserve so much better characterization. my children


	5. Hinata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @my american readers: happy independence day! @everyone else: you poor people  
> anyway enjoy this very gay chapter

"Act two of The Drowsy Chaperone begins with this,” recites Komaeda. “A haunting lament from a very depressed bride. Now, when you’re listening to this, try to ignore the lyrics. I know it will be difficult, but block them out. They’re not the best. The tune is beautiful, and it truly communicates the bride’s state of mind. Just ignore the lyrics.”

"Word for word,” Hinata notes, script in hand. “Not bad! And then the song begins.” He raises his voice to a falsetto impression of Sayaka, singing, “ _I put a monkey on a pedestal…_ ” and both boys burst out laughing.

“Jesus, I can never keep a straight face during that song,” Komaeda says, wiping his eyes. “Every time Sayaka opens her mouth I crack up.”

"It’ll be worse with the monkey costumes, I heard,” Hinata tells him. “That short girl, Saionji or whatever her name is, she said Koizumi showed her our masks, and they were hideous.”

“Oh, that’s my dream,” Komaeda jokes.

They’ve been walking home for the past fifteen minutes, reciting lines and monologues and joking with each other. Hinata’s considering doing this more often. It’s much more pleasant than trudging home in silence, like he’s been doing for the month or two since school began. Of course, he’s also considering doing it because it would allow him to spend an extra twenty minutes a day with his crush alone. He can practically hear Chiaki teasing him in his head, but he really has got it bad for Komaeda.

Every so often, the two boys’ hands touch by accident because they’re walking right next to each other. Every time this happens, Hinata gets the sudden urge to grab Komaeda's hand, but the movement gets lost somewhere between his brain and his fingers and he can’t muster the necessary courage to do so.

But hey, they’ve only known each other for a few weeks. The play alone is going to last another two months. He’ll be able to figure out how to confess eventually. Probably.

“Well,” Komaeda says, and Hinata suddenly realizes the other boy stopped a few feet back. “This is my street. See you tomorrow, Hinata?”

"Yeah, see you,” Hinata replies, and stands there watching Komaeda heading up the sidewalk for a few minutes before continuing the two blocks to his own house.

 It’s three o’clock the following day. Hinata’s standing alone outside the school, by the pathway that’s currently choked with students all trying to leave at once, awkwardly perched on the slope of shoveled snow lining said pathway in an attempt to escape said students. Chiaki and Chihiro are supposed to be giving him a ride to Komaeda’s house, if he can manage to find either of them in the blur of faces rushing by. If he doesn’t find either girl in the next three minutes, he thinks, he might just start walking.

Right on cue, a flash of silver hair and a glimpse of a familiar rocketship barrette pass right in front of him. Hinata reaches forward blindly and ends up latching onto Chiaki’s sleeve, getting unceremoniously yanked into the flow of students as a result.

Chiaki looks up. She doesn’t have her 3DS out, a move which would practically be suicide in the fast-moving crowd, but she’s still moving pretty slowly and looking down at her feet.

“Hey, Hinata.” She doesn’t seem at all perturbed by his unusual method of finding her.

"Hi, Chiaki,” he replies, stumbling as some asshole shoves him right in the middle of the back. Chiaki shoots out one hand and catches him by the collar before he falls and gets run over by the students behind them.

"Thanks,” he manages to say awkwardly, made even more awkward by the fact that she’s still holding his collar, and he’s kind of half fallen, but they’re both still moving somehow. What’s even stranger is the fact that all of this is routine for the after-school rush hour. They haven’t even found Chihiro yet, and once they do they’ll still have to find Chiaki’s sister’s car in the parking lot, and then somehow get out of the parking lot without running any of the crowd over. And yet most upperclassmen actively prefer this over walking to school.

Finding Chihiro proves not to be an issue; when they reach the elder sibling’s green car, she’s standing right next to it. “What took you guys so long?” she jokes.

"Lover boy, here, almost got himself trampled by the stampede,” Chiaki answers as she claims shotgun. Hinata slides into the backseat of the car, which, thankfully, is warm, a sharp contrast to the snow still on the ground outside. He turns to buckle his seatbelt, then whips his head up to stare at her indignantly.

"Wait. Lover boy? Seriously? Really?”

Chihiro just laughs and starts the car, and Chiaki smirks at him in a manner that tells him she thinks her choice of names was witty and intelligent.

“Shut up,” he tells her, unable to think of a better comeback himself.

"What? You told me your crush! You know better than to tell me your crushes unless you want to be mocked mercilessly for them,” Chiaki says. A true friend, that one.

“I haven’t even seen him today,” Hinata grumbles. “He was taking a test or some shit during lunch.”

"Oh, yeah,” she recalls. “That’s my class. U.S. history. We have lunch early on test days so that we’ll have until the end of the period to finish.”

Hinata’s almost disappointed. He was about to launch into full-on complaint mode, and Chiaki just shut him down. Brutal.

At least it feels better knowing he wasn't being avoided. Hinata's had bad experiences with being avoided by friends and not knowing why, when he was at his old school, and it's made him somewhat paranoid now.

They ride in silence after that. It only takes a few minutes to reach Komaeda’s from the school, so the silence is pretty short. Somewhere along the way, Hinata realizes that neither he nor Chiaki said Komaeda’s name, but Chihiro knew who his crush was anyway. He assumes Chiaki must have told her, but then wonders if she figured it out on her own. He’s not brave enough to ask which option is true.

When they pull into Komaeda’s driveway, it looks empty at first, but then the front door opens a crack and he appears as Chihiro, Chiaki, and Hinata get out of the car.

“Hey! You guys made it!” he greets them. “Ishimaru and Mondo are already inside. They got here about twenty minutes ago.”

"Of course they did,” Chihiro grumbles half-jokingly. “Because they have a motorcycle. and it took us an eternity to get out of the parking lot in that car.”

“No offense,” Chiaki tells her sister, “but I think Hinata and I could have just walked and gotten here sooner than you,” and receives a punch to the arm for her troubles.

Komaeda laughs. “So, you guys coming in?” He turns and heads into the house. It’s then, as they’re following him in, that Hinata notices the type of house Komaeda has. It’s one of those houses that has its own tiny road leading up to it, instead of a regular driveway. Like it’s so big that it can’t fit in between the neighboring houses, and is instead set back from the main road. It comes as a shock; since everyone at school is pretty much equal, he never gave a thought to his classmates' financial situations. Komaeda must be much better off than he is.

"Hinata, are you coming?" calls Komaeda, and Hinata rouses himself and follows the others inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tune in next time for the mario kart competition of the fuckin century


	6. Hinata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didn;t remember until after the chapter was done that only four people can play mario kart at a time so uhh....yeah please ignore my inaccuracy  
> also sorry i haven't updated lately!!! i've had theatre camp...so yeah....

“I don’t understand,” says Ishimaru, holding his Wii remote awkwardly as though not sure what to do with it. “There’s no “select” button.”

Mondo looks over at his boyfriend. “Well, first of all, you don't hold it like that for this game,” he informs Ishimaru. “Hold it sideways like this.” He holds up his own to demonstrate.

“Oh…” Ishimaru copies him, then presses a button or two experimentally. The display on Komaeda’s TV screen changes, accompanied by a burst of music, and he looks momentarily excited. “I did it!......What did I do?”

The other six people in the room- Mikan arrived on her bike almost fifteen minutes ago- all give the prefect the same look; the look of a person losing whatever shred of patience they have left.

“You pressed the “back” button,” says Chiaki in a voice that’s almost monotone with boredom. “Now we’re at the main menu.”

Ishimaru’s face falls.

“It’s okay,” chirps Chihiro from her spot on the couch. “You’ll figure out the buttons in no time. Now hurry up! I gotta pick the best character first!”

“Too late, Chihiro,” says Chiaki. “Rosalina’s already taken.”

Chihiro rolls her eyes at her sister. “Yeah, _sure-”_

“You know,” interrupts Mondo, “while you two were arguing, we already picked our characters.”

In a matter of moments, the two siblings drop the subject and select characters.

“Hey, wait a second, there are dogs in this game? Who picked that one?” Mondo asks, pointing at one of the highlighted characters.

“That was me,” Mikan says, raising a hand from where she sits crosslegged on the floor. “I picked Isabelle.”

“Who’s Isabelle?”

“You’ve never played Animal Crossing?” Chihiro yelps, leaning forward.

Mondo shakes his head, confused.

“Oh, wow,” Chihiro says, clapping her hand to her forehead. “I've obviously failed at something. Okay, my 3DS is in my backpack. When we get home, I’m gonna have to show you the best game ever.”

“Okay, it's time to pick vehicles!” shouts Komaeda. “Although, let’s not change the wheels or gliders or anything, because then we’ll be here for hours.”

“Agreed,” Mikan says. “I have to leave in two hours.”

Most of them elect to use a simple kart or bike and leave it at that. Mondo is the notable exception; he insists on picking the biggest motorcycle he can possibly find, once Chiaki reveals to him that it's an option.

"You all better be ready to get fucking wrecked," he says with an absolutely evil grin. 

"I have remote number one, so I'll pick the first track!" Chihiro says, interrupting Hinata's train of thought.

Chihiro picks a relatively harmless track through the streets of a seaside town, and they all begin, accompanied by loud laughter, cheers, and the occasional cry of outrage.

"How does Komaeda keep getting shells every time he hits a powerup? Would it kill you to get a banana peel or something?" grumbles Mikan.

"It's called talent, baby," Komaeda replies without looking away from the screen, and Chihiro, caught off guard, laughs so hard she drops her controller, scrambling wildly to retrieve it without actually letting her butt leave the couch cushion.

"I don't know who threw that blue shell, but throw another one and blood is going to be spilled," murmurs Chiaki calmly, as her character hits a ramp and sails over the heads of everyone else's.

"Who is playing Baby Mario?" shrieks Mikan. "He just fucking rammed me off a bridge!"

"Nobody," Hinata answers for her. "He's an NPC."

"Prepare to _die,_ you little piece of shit!" she yells, and everyone else laughs in the sort of stunned way you laugh when you are slightly afraid.

Chiaki wins the race easily. Komaeda comes second, followed by Chihiro, Mikan, Hinata, Mondo, and finally Ishimaru.

"Why are these so hard to control?" Ishimaru wonders aloud, watching Toad doing the "failed" animation onscreen. "Well, they actually seem very simple for you all, so it must be that I'm just not any good."

He sets the controller down on the couch cushion and draws his knees to his chest.

Chihiro immediately scoots over and throws one arm across his shoulders. "Bullshit," she chirps affectionately. "Nobody's perfect the first time they play a video game, except maybe Miss Gamer Princess over there."

"It's true," Chiaki agrees. "Games are hard. It's always a little difficult to get the hang of a new console, even for me. Don't worry about it."

"You alright, Kiyo?" Mondo asks from his spot on the floor, and Ishimaru nods.

“I think I’ll just watch you all play for a little bit,” he murmurs, although the edges of his mouth turn up in a small smile and he looks a little better. 

"Alright, next race! My turn to pick!" calls Mikan. "We're gonna do that beach track!"

The next three races pass mostly uneventfully, with the exception of Mondo threatening to hurl his remote into the TV when Chiaki slips right past him at the last second of a race. Chiaki is always ae to win somehow. Nobody is able to even touch her permanent status as first place, although Komaeda and Hinata are close, battling for second and third with Chihiro, who's pretty good herself.

Finally, after a particularly hard round on a track set in a mine, Komaeda puts down his controller. "We can get snacks if you want, by the way," he tells everyone else. "Anyone want chips?"

 _"I'm always a slut for Doritos!"_ yells Mondo, and Chihiro instantly facepalms.

Komaeda is completely unfazed. "Yeah, we have Doritos," he says, and gets up, leaving the room. Everyone hears the cupboard doors slamming for a moment, then Komaeda tosses a bag over the counter separating the kitchen and the living room. Mondo catches it with one hand.

"Anyone else?" Komaeda calls.

Nobody replies, so he returns to the living room while Mondo rips open the bag and shoves Doritos into his mouth.

Hinata picks up his controller again, listening to Ishimaru fussing about Mondo being almost an adult and needing a napkin or something.

“Hey, I think it’s my turn to pick the track!” Komaeda says suddenly.

“Yeah, it is,” says Hinata, who counts off Chihiro, Mikan, himself, and Mondo, and realizes Komaeda is next, besides Ishimaru, who's run off to get paper towels, and Chiaki.

He turns back to the TV and suddenly notices the alarming grin on Komaeda’s face.

“Komaeda, no,” says Mikan, who has picked up on her friend’s expression faster than Hinata. “If what I think is happening, _is_ happening, it better not be.”

“What?” says Ishimaru, confused, having just emerged from the kitchen clutching a wad of paper towels. 

Komaeda moves the controller- slowly, as though he’s purposely dragging out the tension- across the screen. “Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t,” he replies to Mikan. He laughs, stifled, like a person who’s trying to tell a funny joke to their friends but is unable to hold back their giggles until they finish.

Something clicks in Hinata’s brain.

“Oh, fuck no,” he says. “He is not--you are _not_ picking Rainbow Road, are you?”

Komaeda’s only response is another laugh.

 _“Stop him!”_ Mikan shrieks. Mondo drops the paper towels and lunges at Komaeda, who screams with laughter as he quickly presses A to begin before Mondo can pull his controller away.

Upbeat synthesized music plays as the camera pans across a brightly colored track on the screen.. Everyone stares blankly at the TV in horror, except for Komaeda, who’s still laughing to himself.

Mondo drops Komaeda’s controller and scrambles to grab his own as a countdown appears on the screen.

“Oh, _fuck you,”_ Chihiro hisses. “You are not picking any more tracks for the rest of the day!”

“Fair enough!” says Komaeda, smiling brightly, as the race begins.

Within two minutes, everyone- even Komaeda, Chihiro, and Chiaki- has had their character fall into the dark abyss of space at least once. Hinata's throat is feeling slightly hoarse from yelling when he slides right off a track or misjudges his aim and shoots off the edge.

“In hindsight, this may have not been a smart choice,” Komaeda confesses after another few minutes.

“No shit, Sherlock,” mutters Mondo, gritting his teeth as Bowser plunges off the track again.

Finally, they’re down to the last half of the third lap.

“I don’t believe it,” mutters Komaeda. “Holy shit, look!"

“What?” Hinata asks him.

“I’m in first!” Komaeda says, and sure enough, a large number 1 is in the corner of Komaeda’s section of the screen, and a number 2 in Chiaki’s.

“Is this my moment of glory?” Komaeda asks, a huge smile spreading across his face. “Am I about to win a race over the great Chiaki Nanami, the queen of all video games? _Is this the moment I shall be remembered for for eternity?”_ He rounds a corner, and the finish line is visible.

Chiaki doesn’t reply. She hits a powerup block instead. The little icon spins for a moment before awarding her…

a blue shell.

Without even a second of hesitation, she taps a button, and Rosalina throws the winged shell with the grace of a cartoon princess.

A loud warning beeping sounds from Komaeda’s controller, and his eyes widen in realization.

 _“No!”_ he screams, absolute despair in his voice.

Luigi’s kart flips upside down, rendering him immobile, only yards from the finish line, long enough for Rosalina to speed gracefully by into first place.

Komaeda drops his controller and slowly leans backward until he's lying faceup on the floor. He stares at the ceiling blankly, saying nothing.

There’s silence, everyone in the room just having witnessed one of the greatest events, at least in Hinata’s opinion, that he’s ever seen.

Chiaki slowly puts her controller down, stands, and leaves the room. Everyone remains still, watching her leave. Nobody moves until they hear the sound of the bathroom door shutting.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao get fucking wrecked komaeda


	7. Hinata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise another update  
> expect another one very soon

When Hinata pushes open the door to the auditorium, there’s loud music playing over the speakers. Several kids are sitting around in the auditorium seats and talking, several more still to arrive, while Komaeda and Mikan are dancing together onstage. Against his will, Hinata’s heart skips a beat as he watches Komaeda spin and laugh. Damn hormones.

The entrance from the school hallway is located at the back of the theater, at the top of the tiers of seats. Chiaki is sitting at the soundboard on a folding table next to the entrance, napping on her folded arms. Hinata leaves her to sleep and heads down towards the stage, where Komaeda notices him and breaks off dancing to wave frantically and rush towards him.

"Hey, Komaeda,” Hinata says in reply, going to drop his backpack in the front row when he feels a pair of hands close around his wrists.

Komaeda yanks Hinata onto the stage. “Hey!” he shouts in protest, but Komaeda pays him no mind. Mikan hops off the stage, and Hinata sees her running up the rows to where Saionji and Koizumi are sitting out of the corner of his eye.

“Come on, dance!” Komaeda says, interrupting Hinata’s train of thought, and before he can say anything like _I can’t dance, are you kidding_ or _haven’t I read this exact scene in shitty fanfiction before,_ Komaeda’s swinging him around like he was with Mikan earlier. It suddenly registers that he and Komaeda are holding hands. Another wave of attraction washes over him, and he shuts his mouth before he can say anything awkward, deciding he better just go along with it.

Before the situation can get any ~~better~~ worse, the song ends. Komaeda releases Hinata’s hands, and for a split second Hinata has the strangest desire to grab them again. He quickly smothers it.

Chiaki must have a playlist going or something, because another song immediately starts up, one that Hinata’s never heard. It starts with synthesized keyboard music and a young boy singing high notes.

In the third row, Ibuki shoots out of her seat. “Is this Revolting Children?” she yells.

“Yeah, it is!” Komaeda shouts back, and Ibuki’s on the stage in a flash.

“I _love_ Matilda!” she gasps, and grabs Komaeda’s hand, who joins her with the same level of enthusiasm. While they’re occupied with headbanging/spinning, Hinata makes his escape to the front row, where he finally collapses into a seat.

And he doesn’t spend the ten minutes left until rehearsal watching Komaeda and Ibuki dancing (or whatever imitation of dancing they’re doing). He also doesn’t wish he had enough confidence to go back up and take Komaeda’s hand again. He most definitely does not.

~

Finally, Junko arrives, coffee in hand and fashionably late. Her appearance marks the beginning of rehearsal, and Mikan is sent to run and wake Chiaki so she can cut off the music. Once everyone except Chiaki and Mikan is seated in the first few rows, Junko sits crosslegged on the stage before them. Her black-haired sister--was it Mukuro?--sits beside her, typing furiously on a laptop. She doesn’t acknowledge any of them.

“Hello, everyone!” chirps Junko, in that slightly irritating, almost too-perky voice. “Nidai isn’t coming to rehearsal today, so I’m in charge! And that means today is gonna be a choreography day. And _that_ means you all be ready to work your asses off! You got that?”

There’s a low hum of muttered assent.

“Brought your jazz shoes?”

Naegi, Komaeda, Sayaka, Sonia, Ibuki, Akane, and Saionji raise their hands. Hinata doesn’t own jazz shoes, and wouldn’t have known he was supposed to bring them if he did.

“Hm,” says Junko, clearly dissatisfied. Hinata thinks this quite unfair, especially since there was no mass text or email about jazz shoes, but upon remembering Komaeda’s apparent terror of her, elects to stay quiet.

“Well,” Junko says, back to her cheery voice, “those of you who did can put them on now. In five minutes we’re going to begin the chorus to Toledo Surprise!”

~

Choreography is hell. Hinata knows that now. He’s died, and his sins have landed him in this neverending torture as punishment. He should have learned from his experience at auditions. 

It wasn’t too bad at first, when they were just repeating a few steps over and over. But Junko is moving at a pace that’s way too fast for Hinata, and although the more experienced dancers, like Akane and Saionji, are copying the routines with ease, there are others, like Souda and especially Hagakure, who are having even more trouble than Hinata. And it doesn’t help that when they can't adhere to Junko’s fast pace, she loses her temper all too easily and is quick to criticize and call out people in front of everyone else. Hinata is thankful that he just manages to keep up, and thus, stay out of her spotlight.

Finally, Junko seems to tire of picking on people. “I know!” she says. “Since some of you are obviously much better at doing this than others, we’ll do it like this. I’ll watch you all perform what we’ve learned so far, then send the people who’ve memorized it to sit down. That way, I can see who needs the most practice, and the people who don’t can sit!”

That sounds to Hinata like absolute bullshit. What Junko really wants is a better opportunity to humiliate the bad dancers, and he knows it. But he keeps his mouth shut, lest he be next under her magnifying glass.

“From the top, Chiaki!” shouts Junko. Chiaki apparently hears, because a few seconds later music begins playing. Everyone quickly resumes their beginning formation.

The first time they dance, three are sent to sit down; Akane, Saionji, and, surprisingly, Fuyuhiko. The second time, Sayaka and Komaeda. The third time, Naegi and Ibuki. To his utter surprise, Hinata is able to sit down after the fourth round, along with Byakuya. For the next three times, nobody is allowed to sit. Finally, Junko sends back Sonia, Chihiro, Asahina, Souda, Tanaka, and Kuwata all at once, leaving only Hagakure and Ishimaru alone.

And then she sends back Hagakure.

Suddenly, the full nature of her plan dawns on Hinata. It was to have, eventually, one lone victim onstage, with everyone else watching. _Jesus fuck,_ he thinks, _she really is sadistic._

Ishimaru is really not a good dancer. Hinata can see that, and so can everyone else. It probably doesn’t help that he’s still wearing long sleeves and pants in the warm auditorium, not to mention the tall black boots he wears every day.

Junko makes him perform the routine again. And again. She’s completely given up the pretense that she’s helping him practice, seeing as she’s stopped giving criticism altogether and just chirps, “Do it again!” after each repetition. And Ishimaru does it. Again. Without daring to say a single word in his own defense.

Hinata is, by now, seriously horrified. He glances up and catches the eye of Komaeda, sitting several seats away. Komaeda’s expression mirrors his own, a mix of horror and guilt. Because they both know they should be doing something.

Komaeda kind of shrugs. Hinata hears a voice from the row behind him- Akane's.

"She always does this," Akane mutters, although Hinata doesn't know who she's talking to. "One of these days I'm gonna punch her lights out, fuck it if she kicks me outta the play."

"It is rather unfair," Sonia whispers back, sounding regretful. "Perhaps I should offer to help Ishimaru with his steps during break. She would stop picking on him then."

"You just don't have the guts to make her stop," Akane grunts.

Sonia says nothing.

Hinata knows this must have happened before. Ishimaru is sixteen years old, and he can take care of himself. Hinata doesn't need to get himself in trouble.

But that's just not the kind of person he is.

Before he can stop himself, Hinata yells, “What the _fuck,_ Junko?”

Ishimaru stops. Chiaki cuts off the music, as perfectly as if Hinata had cued her.

Junko turns, slowly, and faces Hinata. A smile is frozen on her face.

“Excuse me?” she says delicately, as though surprised.

“You’re literally just making him do this for fun!” Hinata hears himself say. “We’ve been sitting here for almost ten minutes just watching him do it again and again! You haven’t even let him have a water break! That is not how you teach choreography!”

Which is, admittedly not the smartest thing to say to a choreographer. 

But as he glances around, everyone isn't staring at him like he thought they would be. In fact, they're actually staring at Junko like she was the wrongdoer. It gives Hinata just enough courage to finish talking.

“Just let him sit the fuck down already! Jesus!”

He can see Ishimaru’s expression out of the corner of his eye. The boy looks exhausted, but when they briefly make eye contact, Hinata tries to smile. Ishimaru doesn't react.

There’s a long, stunned silence. Hinata gets the feeling people don’t yell at Junko too often. But everyone's still staring at her and not Hinata, so that must mean he did something right.

Finally Junko clears her throat and faces front again. “Ishimaru,” she says, “just sit down. I can see no amount of practice will help you remember this.”

Ishimaru looks at the audience of his wide-eyed classmates. His gaze locks with Hinata’s, again, for one split second. Then he looks back at Junko, whose expression Hinata can’t see because he’s behind her.

“Oh my god,” Junko gasps suddenly. “Are you _seriously_ crying?”

Ishimaru turns and flees backstage without another pause.

After a few more silent, hesitant moments, people slowly begin talking again. The only person who doesn’t is Chihiro, who stands and rushes backstage. Hinata decides he should probably follow her.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact: this has actually happened to me in rehearsal, although i got to sit down early on. and also i didn't have junko, thank god, just a shitty choreographer  
> ishimaru my love why am i doing this to you


	8. Hinata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> voila the promised next chapter. this one is p short but i'm trying to update more often now and i'll make the next one longer

* * *

“I’m going to kill her,” hisses Chihiro between clenched teeth. “I’m seriously going to _kill_ her!”

“You really should _not_ do that,” Hinata says, closing the backstage door and hurrying through the cluttered green room to catch up.

Chihiro doesn’t reply, slowing to a stop by the other green room door, the one that connects to the music wing. It’s currently open, and when Hinata stands next to hear they can both faintly hear the sound of Ishimaru crying.

“I should go out there,” Chihiro murmurs, looking worried.

"Is he, like, embarrassed that I yelled at Junko over him?" Hinata asks her. "Because I probably shouldn't have, I just really wanted her to let him sit-"

"No!" says Chihiro, cutting him off. She turns to face him, wide-eyed, and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"No, that was actually really nice of you. I mean, it was stupid, and if somebody murders you in your sleep we'll all know who it was, but...thanks."

 

Hinata attempts a grin. "Thanks, I guess. Yeah, I know it was stupid, but whatever."

The faint sound of sniffling echoes from the hallway, reminding him why he came into the green room.

"Uh, can I do something to help?”

“No, I think he’ll be okay,” Chihiro murmurs, then stops. “Actually, you could call Mondo for me, if that’s fine!”

Hinata nods. She shoves her phone into his hand and doesn’t waste any more time heading out into the music hallway.

Mondo’s number is listed in Chihiro’s contacts.

Hinata gingerly dials the number. After a few rings, the phone picks up.

"Yo, Chi, what's up? Ain't you at rehearsal?"

"A-actually, it's Hinata."

"What? Uh, hey. So why are you on Chi's phone? She okay?"

Hinata reassures him. "No, she's fine, she just asked me to call you. Uh, because Ishimaru's crying in the hallway."

_"What? Why?"_

Hinata flinches slightly at Mondo's loud, somewhat panicked tone.

"Junko embarrassed him during choreography, she, uh, made him rehearse in front of everyone else and she wouldn't let him sit down-"

"Fucking Junko. Of fucking course." Mondo sounds furious as he cuts Hinata off. "So what, should I come over there and kill her? 'Cause I'll be way too happy to throw her out the second story window!"

"No! Uh, no, please don't." Hinata's not sure whether or not Mondo meant that and he isn't willing to find out. "Just, uh, come over and sit with him, maybe? You know, the comforting boyfriend thing? Chihiro's out there with him now, but I bet he'd feel better with you here. I'm guessing."

There's a short pause. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right." Mondo sounds less loud, like he's trying to calm himself down. "Jeez, Kiyo's probably a mess. He's a loud crier, ya know."

"Yeah, I know," Hinata replies, barely avoiding saying "all right" at the end.

A loud sigh. "I'll be over in a minute. Hey, why were you with Chi, if she gave you the phone?"

"Um. I may or may not have been the idiot that yelled at Junko."

A beat.

"No kidding." Is Hinata hearing things or is Mondo impressed? "Really?"

"Yeah, really," says Hinata.

"Nice going, kid!" Mondo says, sounding happy. "No offense, but I didn't think you were the type!"

"I'm...really not," Hinata mutters, mostly to himself. 

"Alright, I'll be over there in a minute, okay? Thanks for lettin' me know."

"No problem," Hinata says, and Mondo hangs up.

He really doesn't want to intrude on whatever kind of moment Chihiro and Ishimaru might be having in the hallway, so after a minute he just leaves the phone on the makeup counter and heads back into the auditorium. 

When he appears on the stage, everyone stops their conversation to look at him for a moment. Komaeda catches his eye and waves, so Hinata heads up to sit with him.

“Chihiro went out to talk to Ishimaru, and I called Mondo, so he’s on his way,” he whispers to Komaeda.

“Good." Komaeda nods.

“Hey!” whispers an entirely different voice from behind him. Hinata turns to see Aoi Asahina leaning over the row behind him, looking worried.

“Hey, you’re the one who yelled at Junko, right?” she says. "Nice going, by the way. Is Ishimaru okay?”

“Yeah,” Hinata tells her, “Chihiro’s out there with him.”

“Good.” Asahina sits down in the row behind them. “Is Junko even allowed to do that? I mean, she always does that, but now that I think about it, shouldn't there be some kind of rule about it? Can’t we, like, report her to the main office or something and get her kicked off tech?”

Hinata doesn’t know what to tell her. He’s not really familiar with those rules.

“I don’t think she’d try to pull that shit again,” Komaeda says. “‘Cause now she knows we’ll call her out on it. I think maybe she was trying to see what she could get away with. Or maybe she just did it for entertainment. I don’t know what’s going on in her head. You know, it’s just her luck Kirigiri wasn’t here today. She wouldn’t have let Junko get away with that, and we all know it."

It’s only then that Hinata notices the absence of the stage manager. He wonders how he could have missed it before, although with the way Kirigiri melts into the background he usually doesn’t notice her at all.

It seems like Asahina’s about to say something, but is interrupted by Junko’s shout of, “Alright, everybody, onstage! We’re running this from the top!”

Hinata notices as they rehearse that Chihiro and Ishimaru are yet to reappear. It’s a little hard to keep his mind off them and just focus on dancing, but he manages somehow.

After what seems like an eternity, it’s 6:00, and time for rehearsal to end.

“Are we walking home?" Komaeda asks, and Hinata nods distractedly.

They pass through the green room to reach the music wing exit, where Hinata sees Mondo, Chihiro, and Ishimaru on the squishy couch. Ishimaru is fast asleep, his head leaning on Mondo's shoulder (Hinata notes that the areas around his eyes are red, probably from crying) and Mondo and Chihiro pause in conversation to wave at the two passing boys.

"At least Ishimaru seems to be okay," Hinata says to the other boy, as soon as they're out of the building. "I still can't believe Junko actually did that, though! That's like, Mean Girls level nasty."

"Ah, yes," Komaeda says jokingly. "The worst level of high school nastiness."

"I'm serious," Hinata complains, but he lets the subject drop for the moment. As long as it doesn’t happen again, he supposes. And it probably won’t, not with Kirigiri and Nidai around. Nidai definitely won’t let that slide, and he’s pretty sure Kirigiri won’t either.

“I see what you meant about Junko being terrifying, though,” he says, suddenly remembering the conversation they’d had on audition day.

Komaeda raises his eyebrows. “Oh, you thought that was bad? Last year it was Hagakure. She usually picks somebody that's unpopular,  or that not many people like. It's weird for her to pick somebody like Ishimaru. I mean, he's loud and doesn't understand a lot of social norms, but people like him, you know? He's a nice guy. That's unusual for Junko."

“Have you spent a large amount of time musing on the inner workings of Junko Enoshima’s mind?” Hinata asks him.

Komaeda shrugs.

"Doesn't understand a lot of social norms," Hinata finds himself muttering under his breath. "You know how much of a hypocrite you sound like, Komaeda?"

Komaeda blinks, surprised. "Hm. What do you mean by that?"

"Ishimaru's loud and all, but  _you_ have no concept of personal space," says Hinata, thinking about how Komaeda's always grabbing his hand or his arm to pull him around or leaning his head on his shoulder when he wants a nap during rehearsal. 

Komaeda's expression shifts very slightly. "I see. Are you saying you want me to stop?"

Hinata doesn't have an answer for that, so he settles for saying nothing. Surprisingly, Komaeda doesn't repeat the question when he doesn't answer.

It’s starting to snow. Being after six in the middle of winter, it’s already getting dark, and they stop under the streetlight at the end of Komaeda’s block just as the sun disappears over the horizon.

Hinata turns to face Komaeda and stops.

Komaeda’s light hair and his eyelashes both have sparkles of snow on them, visible in the halo of the streetlight. His cheeks are pink with cold, and suddenly, out of nowhere, Hinata wants to kiss him.

He swallows hard. Komaeda isn’t saying anything, just standing there, lips slightly parted, almost like he wants Hinata to lean in and-

Nope. _Nope._

Hinata loses his cool, stammers out something like _“uhhIhavetogohomenowseeyoutomorrowKomaeda!”,_ and runs for his life.

The last thing he sees as he rounds the corner to safety is Komaeda, still standing under the streetlight, looking slightly stunned, and- maybe disappointed?

Hinata hopes he might be disappointed.

No, he doesn’t.

~~Yes, he does.~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really need to stop getting embarrassed by my own writing


	9. Sonia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally we have a long overdue POV switch

It's Friday, twenty minutes after the end of school. Sonia Nevermind sits cross-legged on one of the aisle tiers, next to Tanaka. Both are preoccupied with her boyfriend's ecology project; a small rat assigned to each class member, which they are to raise for two months and train to run through a maze, and which Tanaka is taking home for the weekend. There's no music playing today, and the overall atmosphere is quiet.

"Guess what, everyone!” Nidai yells, by way of greeting, as he throws open the backstage door. "The Murphy bed was finished yesterday!"

This news is met with enthusiasm from the half of the cast who know what a Murphy bed is, and confusion from the half who do not.

"Um, the fuck?" says Leon Kuwata. "Am I supposed to know what that is?"

"A Murphy bed is a prop bed that can fold up into the wall of the set," explains Naegi. "Like the kind you might have in a one-room apartment. I’ve looked up a couple bootlegs of Drowsy Chaperone, and all of them use one."

"Correct!" roars Nidai. "This Murphy bed is used for the scenes in the bridal suite."

Sonia feels a thrill of excitement. She sticks one hand in the air. "That includes the I Am Aldolpho scene, right?" Hearing the name of his character, Tanaka looks up from the rat he's holding.

"That is also correct, Sonia!" Nidai affirms. "In that scene, you and Tanaka finish the song on the bed, and you stay there while we fold it into the wall during the scene change, then get off on the other side of the wall."

Several heads turn towards Sonia and Tanaka.

"By 'on the bed', you mean, like, _laying_ on the bed?" Asahina says, and a wolf whistle rises from Ibuki's general area. Sonia feels the blood rush to her cheeks, and in her peripheral vision she  sees Tanaka turn pink, sputtering for a few seconds before tugging his scarf up over his nose with one hand.

"Wow," Hinata says, "and here I was thinking having to rollerskate around the stage blindfolded was the most embarrassing thing to happen to anybody during this show! Thanks, guys, I feel a lot better now!"

"Hinata, don't be a dick," Komaeda reprimands him, punching his shoulder, but both boys are smiling.

Sonia herself isn't sure what to think. She doesn't exactly mind being in that position with Tanaka--hell, she definitely doesn't mind it, if she’s going to be completely honest with herself--but she suddenly knows they're going to be enduring jokes about it for months, perhaps even years to come. She can sense it. Perhaps she's gained Hagakure's supposed divination powers, by association.

"So where is this Murphy bed?" Souda asks, breaking the awkward silence, and for perhaps the first time Sonia is extremely grateful for his presence.

"You may have all noticed the set being built over the last few weeks," says an unfamiliar voice. After a few seconds of confusion, everyone collectively realizes it's Kyouko Kirigiri.

"Mondo Oowada was here late last night, helping Mukuro and me install the bed," the stage manager continues. "So the answer is that it's up there right now." Everyone automatically swivels to look at the walls set up onstage and sees nothing out of the ordinary. The bed must be in its folded position.

"Well!" Nidai says, clapping his hands together. "Shall we begin rehearsal? We should probably practice with the bed, and then begin with that scene in the bridal suite. From Aldolpho's entrance."

That means just Komaeda, Tanaka, and Sonia.  

"Oh, Tanaka," starts Kirigiri, as they get up. "You can't take that up there with you."

Sonia turns to her boyfriend and sees that Kirigiri means his rat.

"What would you suggest I do?" Tanaka asks, holding the rat to his chest and looking quite offended.

Kirigiri's forehead wrinkles in confusion. "Put it in its cage?"

"Absolutely not!" argues Tanaka vehemently. "I may have to carry that school--assigned prison with me, but I have no intention of confining this poor creature to such a tiny and neglectful space--"

“It’s only for an hour--”

“It doesn’t even allow her to climb, it’s a hamster cage, for one thing--”

"Well, whatever your opinions on pet cages, you are not taking that thing onto _my_ stage--"

"She's not a _thing_ \--"

"Hey," interrupts another voice, and Sonia turns to see Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu. Tanaka and Kirigiri pause in their shouting match.

"If you need someone to hold your rat," he continues, "you could give it to Peko."

The three of them, Sonia, Fuyuhiko, and Tanaka, look up past the rows of seats, where Peko Pekoyama, Fuyuhiko's best friend, sits crosslegged on the floor, hunched over an open homework binder.

"Are you sure the stoic one would be open to such an arrangement?" asks Tanaka, looking pensive.

Fuyuhiko scoffs. "You kidding? Peko's nuts for small animals. Because of their soft fur, mostly. She likes petting them."

"Does she?" muses Sonia. She hadn't known that.

Fuyuhiko nods and scuffs at the auditorium carpet with his shoe, as if embarrassed somehow.

"Perfect!" decides Tanaka. "Peko Pekoyama shall be the perfect temporary guardian to Invading Black Dragon Cham-P!" He holds the small rat in the air, as if to make sure everyone knows who he's referring to.

"You're kidding," says Fuyuhiko. "That's seriously what you named it?"

Tanaka pays him no mind, marching up the rows with determination.

"I like the name," Sonia says absentmindedly as they watch Tanaka approach Peko, who looks up from her homework as he nears. It's far away that they can't hear what's being said, but they can see Peko's eyes widen as Tanaka presents her with Cham-P, and her vehement nod as she accepts the rat with trembling hands.

"You would," Fuyuhiko retorts as Tanaka leaves Peko and heads back towards them, but Sonia can tell he doesn't mean it rudely.

"Sonia, Tanaka, come on!" calls Kirigiri. Fuyuhiko leaves and heads up to join Peko, passing Tanaka on his way.

"He was right," Tanaka says, rejoining Sonia. "The stoic one was certainly excited when I proposed temporary ownership of Cham-P. It was relatively endearing." Without saying anything else, he slips his hand into hers as they climb onto the stage.

~

"So this is how it's going to work," says Kirigiri, as the three of them stand around the pulled-out Murphy bed. "Sonia's going to be lying on the bed. Feet against the wall, so you’ll be standing when the bed tilts up. " She gestures with one hand, indicating to do so, and Sonia obeys, sitting and swinging her feet up onto the wooden surface.

"Then Tanaka will be on top. Knees on either side of hers, hands on either side of her head," Kirigiri continues, making the same indicating gesture.

Tanaka flushes violently red again. He goes to tug his scarf over his face again, remembers that he took it off three minutes ago, and settles for scratching the bridge of his nose awkwardly.

"Come on," Kirigiri says, either not understanding the reason for his embarrassment or not caring. Sonia suspects the latter.

Finally Tanaka climbs onto the bed, placing his hands and knees where Kirigiri directs. In this position, he and Sonia are face to face, practically touching noses. Sonia smiles brightly in an attempt to make him feel less awkward, but he only flushes even redder.

"Mukuro, let's try folding in the bed now," Kirigiri calls. Then the corners of her mouth twitch slightly, as though she's trying to keep from saying something.

Finally she gives up and her mouth twists into a smirk. "And go slow," she adds. "Remember, it's their first time!"

She says this with an emphasis that makes it all too clear what she's joking about.

As Mukuro pulls the rope on the other side and the bed begins to lift, stunned laughter erupts from the rest of the cast. Sonia feels her cheeks turning red as well, and Tanaka looks like he wants nothing more at that moment than to melt into the floorboards.

“We might also have Sonia put her arms around Tanaka’s neck, but we’ll see for now,” Kirigiri continues as the bed tilts up into the wall, which does nothing to help what’s becoming a perpetual state of embarrassment.

Tanaka straightens his legs as soon as the bed becomes vertical, and he and Sonia are able to step off the other side without any problems.

Mukuro releases her rope, nods at them, and disappears backstage without smirking or cracking any jokes about their position. Sonia’s incredibly thankful for that, although she suspects it might just be because Mukuro never seems to show any emotion, period.  
“Alright, you guys,” Nidai calls from the stage, “let’s run that whole scene from Tanaka’s entrance! Komaeda, get in the chair!”

Tanaka starts for the stage, but Sonia tugs at his sleeve to make him face her again.

“Hey,” she tells him. “You don’t have to be so embarrassed. You’re going to do just fine, even if everyone laughs. And, I mean, isn’t comic relief the point of having Aldolpho?”

Tanaka fidgets with a bandage on his arm. “I suppose that’s true,” he admits. It’s hard to tell in the dark of backstage, but she thinks his blush is fading a little.

“Good,” she chirps, and kisses him briefly before taking his hand. The two of them head out to the stage together.

~

“Such a skinny fool,” recites Sonia, meaning Janet Van de Graaff, who in this scene has just run offstage. She drapes herself over the hard wooden surface of the Murphy bed. “Still, I envy her. Oh, when will love come crashing through my door?”

Right on cue, the fake door is thrown open. Sonia’s facing the audience, but from the way everyone laughs she assumes Tanaka must be in some kind of ridiculous pose.

“Oh, look,” she hears Komaeda say from his chair. “It’s Aldolpho, come to seduce the bride.”

They go through the whole scene, in which Aldolpho is convinced that the Chaperone is the bride, and she insists that she isn’t, but after hearing that he intends to make love to her, goes along with it. They haven’t exactly memorized the choreography for the song yet, but stumble through it somehow and finish the scene on the Murphy bed, the way they’d practiced.

“That was a good run, don’t you think?” Sonia says, breathing somewhat heavily from exertion, as they step off the bed backstage.

“I dropped my cane during I Am Aldolpho,” Tanaka says mournfully. Sonia rolls her eyes,

“Oh, please.” She stands on tiptoe to kiss his forehead. “You were great out there.”

Tanaka once again entwines her fingers in hers. Instead of going out to the stage right away, they stay there, leaning against the wall.

“Thank you, she-cat,” he says after a bit, and Sonia smiles at his pet name for her.

“You’re welcome,” she replies, and it’s only natural that they start kissing, right?

Of course, she has to think hard on whether it was worth it when Junko Enoshima eventually catches them making out backstage and chews them out for it loudly enough for everyone else to hear.

But whatever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can u all tell i'm sondam trash  
> also!!!! found a good recording of drowsy chaperone on youtube! the only thing is i really hate the mrs. tottendale in this, the character is really supposed to be a quiet little old lady, not whatever that is, but other than that this recording is really good, so i recommend watching it if you have not yet seen the show!  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeOJE_JfmlU


	10. Hinata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> currently on vacation without a computer! fun fact: it is very hard to type new chapters on a phone

On Monday, when Hinata arrives for lunch at the usual spot in the cafeteria, the table is empty. As he sets his tray down, his phone buzzes with a text from Nanami.

_Hey! Down in the music wing today. Sonia Tanaka Ibuki and Byakuya are here too. Saved a spot for you :)_

The music wing is across the cafeteria. When Hinata pushes open the door, he can already hear laughter coming from down the hall to his left. On the way down, he passes a classroom full of freshmen with guitars and an (apparently soundproofed) practice room, inside of which he can see a girl with large, round glasses and a purple dress hunched over a piano.

Sitting in a group in the corner at the end of the hall by a bank of band lockers are Komaeda, Chiaki, and Tsumiki, along with Ibuki, Byakuya, Sonia, and Tanaka. Sonia is the first to see Hinata approaching, and she pauses in conversation to beam and hail him over to join them as the others shout greetings. Chiaki pats the empty spot between her and Ibuki, and Hinata slides in gratefully.

"Hajamas! Glad you could join us!" yells Ibuki, and _thwomps_ him on the back so hard he almost drops his tray.

"If you're wondering why we're all down here, it's because we're figuring out a repertoire for our Advanced Choir group. They all have to be Christmas songs, but it's not going well because Ibuki volunteered a bunch of her favorites but nobody else liked them." She sticks out her tongue at the others in the group.

"Um, N-Nanami and I are just here to watch," pipes Mikan.

Komaeda brightens suddenly. "Hey, Chiaki, tell these guys what you did today!" Chiaki stiffens and shoots Komaeda a look that says _I will have my revenge for this_.

"So what did the quiet one do today?" asks Tanaka.

Chiaki sighs, slightly irritated. "Okay. I asked Mikan to go out with me."

All eyes turn to Tsumiki, who is suddenly fixated on a stain on the floor tiles.

"What did you say, Mikan?" asks Sonia.

After a moment, Mikan looks up with a grin. "I said hell no, of course."

Stunned silence, until Komaeda's eyes widen and he says, "Hey, she's learning sarcasm!" Everyone laughs as Nanami clasps Mikan's hand.

"Oh, look at us!" Sonia says, and all eyes turn to her.

"Three couples!" she says, pointing out what she means. "Me and Gundam, Byakuya and Ibuki, and now Tsumiki and Chiaki!"

A smirk twists the corners of Byakuya's mouth. "Well, it looks like Komaeda and Hinata are going to have to hook up now." He obviously means it as a joke, but suddenly Hinata can feel blood rushing to his cheeks.

"Haha, well, maybe!" jokes Komaeda, definitely not helping at all. Chiaki grins, sensing Hinata's embarrassment, and he pointedly refuses to look at her.

"So!" he says a little too loudly. "Let's change the subject. Ibuki, you said you're all practicing for Advanced Choir, right?"

"Right!" chirps Ibuki, perking up, and Hinata's distraction works.

"That's our cue," Nanami says. "Come on, Mikan, let's go to the gas station across the street and get milkshakes." The two girls get up, and Ibuki continues.

"So every year on the last day before winter vacation, groups of AC kids (that's short for Advanced Choir kids) get out of class so they can run around delivering carols and spreading joy and cheer and other things that give you a warm fuzzy feeling in your chest!"

"Delivering carols?" Hinata queries.

"Yeah, for the last three weeks, we've been selling carols at a table in the foyer! You can buy one and have it sent to your datemate or your friend or a teacher. And if we have a really annoying song like Jingle Bell Rock on the list, you can send it to your worst enemy!"

"There are two groups of carolers this year," Sonia says. "Our group is made up of me, Ibuki, Byakuya, Tanaka, and Komaeda. The other group is Naegi, Sayaka, Asahina, Chihiro, Leon, and Ishimaru."

"They have one member more than us this year," Komaeda says ruefully.

 _"IDEA!"_ screams Ibuki suddenly. Everyone jumps.

"Sorry! The idea that Ibuki just had was so amazing, she just couldn't control herself!" Ibuki bounces in place, then points to Hinata with the enthusiasm of a magician picking a volunteer from the audience. "Hinata, you should join the class!"

"...Me?" Hinata's almost sure she's joking. He knows he's a good singer, but he wouldn't exactly categorize himself as the type of person other people beg to join their choir groups.

"Would I even be able to join the class? The year's almost half over."

"Oh, sure!" Sonia's picked up on Ibuki's enthusiasm. "Normally you couldn't, but this year we have only eleven members. Miss Monomi is sure to let you in. She'll probably be relieved, come to think of it. We have class during fifth period, right after lunch. Do you have that period open?"

"Uh, yeah..." The conversation is getting away from Hinata at an alarming rate, like a ball rolling down a hill, and he's not sure but he thinks he just signed up for Advanced Choir.

"Great!" chirps Sonia. "Well, we can tell Miss Monomi during next class! She'll want to audition you, of course, but it's a super simple process and you'd pass, easy as pie."

"I can text you to tell you when she wants to meet," joins Komaeda. Hinata stares at him.

"Wh--is this a thing now? Is everybody already on board with this?"

"Why not?" says Byakuya. "Actually, we kind of need you. So far we have two basses--" he indicates himself and Tanaka "--two altos--" Komaeda and Ibuki "--and a soprano." Sonia waves. "But no tenors."

Something about that sentence bothers Hinata. He turns to Komaeda. "Wait a second. You sing _alto?"_

Komaeda smiles and shrugs. "Guilty as charged. I guess I just have a really high voice. Some of the tenor notes are out of my range, you know."

"So he can't sing tenor," Ibuki says. "But now that we have Hajammers, that's not a problem!" She whacks Hinata on the back again, but he's more prepared this time.

"You're talking like I'm already in the class," he quips.

Sonia laughs. "You are!"

~

Hinata receives a text from Komaeda during seventh period that Miss Monomi is available after school. When he shows up at the music wing, he is unceremoniously shoved into a practice room by Sonia and Ibuki and told to wait.

He sits there for about fifteen minutes, watching kids leave through the window, until the sound of the doorknob turning startles him. He spins around to see a chubby woman who must be Miss Monomi.

She's very short, perhaps just a little shorter than Nanami, who is about six inches shorter than Hinata himself. She's dressed all in pink; a fuzzy cardigan over a pink shirt, and a pink bow in her short black hair. The overall impression is that of a somewhat younger Dolores Umbridge, although from Sonia's description, Miss Monomi is nowhere near as cruel.

"You must be Hajime Hinata!" she squeaks, in a timid voice not unlike Mikan's.

"That's me, ma'am," Hinata replies.

"Oh, there's no need for that! Just call me Miss Monomi," squeaks the teacher. Notably, she pronounces her r's like w's.

Also notably, she's one of the informal teachers. That bodes well for what the class is going to be like. Hinata thinks back to the strict teachers, the ones who insist on being addressed with proper titles and give girls dress code violation slips for showing their collarbones. Shudder.

"Sonia Nevermind told me you were intewested in joining our class! Is that wight?" Miss Monomi asks, and Hinata nods.

"Well, of course you are, I suppose, or you wouldn't have been waiting in here, would you? That was silly of me. Anyway, first, I'd like to test your wange, if that's okay!"

They perform a few exercises. Miss Monomi has Hinata sing as high and then as low as he can, marks down both notes, then has him do few basic scales and match pitch with random notes she plays on the practice room piano.

After this last one, she stops, looking pleased. "All right, well, that was fantastic! You can go now, Hajime!"

Hinata isn't quite sure he heard her correctly. "What?" he asks stupidly, for lack of better words.

"You can go! Your performance was excellent, and I'll be adding you to the class woster shortly!"

"...that's it?"

Miss Monomi stops in the middle of gathering her papers. "Were you perhaps expecting more?"

"Well, no..." He hadn't actually known what to expect. "I guess I just didn't think it would be that easy."

The teacher pauses, then smiles. "Well, I suppose I haven't been quite honest with you. You see, that was the pwocess I use for weturning members. It's normally longer for new members, but...well, I don't weally think that's necessawy, is it?"

She leans in conspiratorially. "I've heard a bit about you, Hinata. My nieces have told me what a wonderful singer you are."

Now Hinata is _really_ confused. "Your...nieces?"

Miss Monomi tilts her head. "Oh, you didn't know? Chiaki Nanami and Chihiwo Fujisaki."

"Holy shit, you're their _aunt?_ Wait- oh, crap- sorry."

Hinata would be a little more embarrassed by the fact that he just accidentally swore in front of a teacher, but he had literally no idea that Chiaki and Chihiro were related to one of the teachers.

The teacher in question winks. "Although they will pwobably be vewy embawassed, now that you know. Anyway, I know you're stawwing in the school musical? Wight?"

"Right." Hinata's head is spinning with all of the new information presented to him. Not to mention, Miss Monomi's speech impediment is getting a little annoying.

"Well, I'm sure you pwobably understand my decision now, wight?" she says, beaming at him.

Hinata nods and smiles. Annoying though her voice may be, Miss Monomi's cheerfulness is somewhat infectious.

"Well, I'll be seeing you in class tomowwow, then! I'll have the class added to your schedule wight away! Goodbye, Hajime!" With that, she's gone, moving surprisingly quickly for someone of her stature.

Hinata stands there a moment longer, experiencing the strangest feeling that he might have hallucinated the last ten minutes, then shakes his head, grabs his backpack, and leaves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wasn't originally planning to include monomi, but i needed a teacher for the choir class and it was like why not  
> stay tuned for the first class and later, the exciting tale of caroling day


	11. Ibuki

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is sO LONG OVERDUE I'M SORRY *flings myself into the sun*  
> on the other hand i've been super busy with shrek the musical so there's that  
> ((i'm the big bad wolf it's a fun time))

"Okay," Ibuki says. She, Byakuya, Komaeda, Tanaka, and Sonia are in a circle on the floor of the music wing classroom. It's five minutes till fifth period starts, and Hinata and his spiky hair are nowhere to be seen.

Ibuki scans the circle, trying to decide who should be her next victim.

"Sonic, I choose you! Wow, that was a double video game reference! Chiaki would be proud of me!" Ibuki's rambling at this point, stalling while she thinks of a musical to challenge Sonia with.

"Okay..mmm, the Addams Family! Go!"

Sonia claps her hands together and surveys the group before her.

"It can be anyone we know," Ibuki reminds her. "But you only have a minute!"

"Okay, me and Tanaka as Gomez and Morticia," Sonia begins, and everyone laughs and nods. She continues.

"Sayaka as Wednesday...Naegi as Lucas...um, Hinata and....Asahina as Mal and Alice Beineke?"

"Holy shit, I can see it," murmurs Komaeda, and leans over in a fit of silent laughter.

"You said anyone we knew, right? So, uh, that red haired elementary school kid that hangs around Junko, he could be Puggsley, or maybe the cute blond haired one, he'd be better. And....Byakuya and Ibuki as Fester and Grandma!" Sonia shouts, and instantly receives a high-five from Ibuki, who absolutely cannot let that go unrewarded, while Byakuya turns pink and lets out a stunned laugh.

"One more!" Ibuki prompts her. "Who's Lurch?"

"Ah...Komaeda!"

Komaeda leans back and lies on the floor, laughing helplessly as everyone bursts into raucous laughter, even Byakuya and Tanaka.

"You get another high-five for your excellent casting decisions!" decides Ibuki, and they almost miss because Sonia's shaking so hard from laughing.

The Casting Game is the best way to pass the time that Ibuki has found. Notable winners in the past have been Komaeda as Angel from Rent, Mondo Oowada as the voice of the plant from Little Shop of Horrors, Ishimaru as Javert from Les Miserables, and Tanaka as Scar from The Lion King. Their squad has played it many, many times in the past, and Ibuki has known it to save many a boring conversation.

Hinata opens the classroom door just then. He tries to enter quietly, but when Ibuki sees him, she immediately yells, "HAJIME!" and then feels a little bit guilty because everyone swarms the poor kid before he can even set his bag down. Even Leon, who always carries himself with a cooler-than-you attitude, stops trying to hit on Sayaka to shout, "Yo, Hinata! Good to see ya!"

While they're all crowded around Hinata, Miss Monomi waddles through the opposite door.

"Hello, evewyone!" she chirps, and everyone disperses to their seats.

"Now as you all know, Cawoling Day is coming up vewy, vewy soon! We have only three classes  left, so today will be a work day," the teacher says, addressing her class at the front of the room. "How about Naegi's gwoup stay in here to pwactice, and Sonia's gwoup go into the gween woom next door?" When nobody objects,  Miss Monomi claps her hands. "Alwight then! Pwease get to work!"

One of Ibuki's favorite places in the universe is the school green room,  even if only one power outlet works and it's always messy and cramped because they store all their available set pieces in there. She runs ahead of Sonia to be the first into the room and flops onto the old blue couch, sticking out her legs to cover the available space.

"You're stealing the couch," Byakuya reprimands her, crossing his arms as he approaches. "Move your legs."

Ibuki interlaces her fingers behind her head. "Make me," she invites him cheerily.

He only raises one eyebrow.  "Are you quite sure about that? I could break your legs." To illustrate his point, he moves to sit on the part of the couch occupied by Ibuki's feet. She squeals and quickly draws her knees to her chest, then groans. "Okay, you win. For now."

"So!" says Sonia importantly.  Each member has found somewhere to sit in the green room. The leader herself is perched on the makeup counter, with Tanaka leaning on it next to her, and Hinata is in the squishy armchair near the couch. He doesn't look too happy, even though he's got the comfiest spot. That's probably because Komaeda ignored the fact that the chair was occupied, and is now seated literally on top of Hinata. The latter's face is beet red while the former sits happily unbothered.

((Sometimes Ibuki wonders if Komaeda does those things just to make Hinata flustered. She also wonders why neither of them has made a move.))

"Our carol list," Sonia recites for their new member, "is Silent Night, You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch, All I Want For Christmas Is You, and Santa Baby."

"All I Want For Christmas Is You is our most requested song," Ibuki says. It's not one of her favorites.  She'd rather do the fun ones, like Rudolph, than a boring pop song. "All the lovebirds like to send them to their significant others."

"Which is why we need to make the most of our practice times!" Sonia finishes. "I'm afraid we've already got our solos worked out. Tanaka is doing the Grinch solo, Ibuki's got the All I Want For Christmas solo, and Komaeda and I are taking turns every other verse for Santa Baby."

Hinata shrugs good-naturedly. "Fine by me. I don't need a solo."

“Oh...well, that’s good! Also…” Sonia clasps her hands. “You’ll have to share sheet music with Komaeda. I only printed five copies of each song.”

“Of course,” Hinata says, sounding almost expectant, while Komaeda whips a couple of neatly folded paper squares from his jacket pocket.

“Let’s begin with Silent Night, then!” Sonia says, and everyone sits up straight.

Ibuki was right about Hinata’s singing. (Not that she hasn’t heard him tons of times during rehearsal already.) He stumbles a bit with the harmonies, but his sight-reading skills are excellent, and Sonia looks extremely relieved to learn that they won’t have to spend time trying to ease him in.

After they’ve gone over each song a few times, Sonia pulls out her phone to check the time.

“It’s only nine-forty five,” she announces. “We still have...an hour and fifteen minutes of class time left.”

Ibuki flops over the arm of the couch to let her hair hit the floor. “How can that be? Ibuki thought time was supposed to fly when you were having fun!”

“We could eat the leftover cake in the green room fridge,” Byakuya suggests. His stomach rumbles audibly, and he offers a sheepish grin.

Sonia shrugs. “As long as we go back to the classroom before the bell, Miss Monomi won’t care.”

“What?” Komaeda perks up. “Nobody told me there was cake!” He jumps off of Hinata’s chair and crosses the room in two steps, flinging open the fridge.

“...Oh. It’s _carrot_ cake.”

Tanaka groans, and it’s only then that Ibuki notices how quiet he’s been. “For one fleeting moment, my vessel was tempted by the thought of chocolate,” he moans dramatically.

“Well, if _you_ don’t want it, I’ll take it,” snaps Byakuya. “I wouldn’t turn down perfectly good cake.”

“Nor would I!” chimes Sonia. “I rather enjoy carrot cake, besides.”

“Hells yeah! Save some for Ibuki!”

“I’ll have some, too,” calls Hinata from his armchair.

Komaeda shakes his head in disbelief. “You people are degenerates.”

Ten minutes later, after Sonia produced plastic plates and forks from a drawer under the makeup counter, and four out of the six sit eating happily, Hinata appears to have second thoughts.

“Is it really okay for us to eat this?” he asks. Everyone looks at him.

Sonia waves her hand dismissively. “Souda left it here.”

“Oh.”

They go back to eating.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> where did souda obtain carrot cake??? We Just Don't Know  
> ah well it's in twogami's stomach now
> 
> ((YOU WON'T HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER TWO MONTHS FOR THE NEXT UPDATE I PROMISE))


	12. Fuyuhiko/Hinata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was a lot easier to write than the last lmao  
> hope you guys like it, although it's a bit short

“I’m telling you, man,” says Souda, staring across the auditorium dreamily. “She’s the one.” He is, of course, referring to Sonia Nevermind, who remains blissfully unaware of her fanboy as she runs through her lines with Naegi in the front row.

Fuyuhiko regards the blonde beauty. For the thousandth time, he wishes fervently that his partner for the show was anyone but Souda Kazuichi, for whom Sonia seems to occupy 95% of all thought. She _is_ beautiful, Fuyuhiko thinks, but not really worth obsessing over. (Besides, he adds on despite himself, his crush is on somebody else.)

“Are you crazy sure about that? Dude, you and Sonia Nevermind occupy different galaxies.”

Souda waves one hand dismissively.

“She’s not only out of your league, but she’s, like, the girl who just hit a home run, and you’re the guy selling hotdogs outside the stadium.”

Souda doesn’t even reply. Fuyuhiko wonders if the guy can even hear him at this point.

“She already has a boyfriend, you know? Give it up, already!”

That gets Souda’s attention. He stiffens. The reaction is so comical, Fuyuhiko imagines Kill Bill sirens going off in his head.

Sarcasm is the only way he survives spending time around Kazuichi Souda anymore.

“Yeah, well,” scoffs the boy, “it’s obvious she and Tanaka have no chemistry anyway. Hell, all that occult shit he’s into, he probably cast some kind of spell on her. Wouldn’t surprise me.”

Both opinions Fuyuhiko disagrees with, but he keeps his mouth shut. It’s not worth starting an argument with Souda over.

He shakes his script. “Look, let’s just practice our lines. Nidai will chew us out if he sees us sitting around talking about girls.”

Souda finally turns his eyes away from Sonia. “Fine.” He raises his own script.

Fuyuhiko waits for Souda to say his first line. It doesn’t come.

“Hey, idiot,” he hisses. “Your line is ‘Care for a petit four, Mr. Feldzieg?’ It’s literally right there on the script.”

“I know!” Souda says suddenly, not in the _you don’t need to remind me_ way but the _I have a brilliant idea_ way.

“What?”

“About how to get in with Miss Sonia!”

Fuyuhiko presses his script to his forehead and prays to whatever gods exist for patience.

“She’s always hanging around that Hinata kid!” Souda says brightly. “If I become his friend and hang around him, she might like me more by extension!”

“So your plan is to use Hinata to get to the girl? Man, he is way too smart to fall for that shit!”

“There’s only one way to find out!” Souda jumps to his feet and bounds down the aisle towards Hinata’s seat in the fourth row.

Fuyuhiko lets him go. He scans the audience surreptitiously for Peko, and once he sees her sitting with Chiaki at the sound board, heads up there to join her.  Seeing her smile when she notices him is infinitely preferable to running lines with Souda. He can feel his own expression lighting up in response.

(He pretends not to see Chiaki grinning a smug _I know your secret_ grin as he sits down. Let her.)

~

“Yo, Hinata! My man!”

Hinata is reading through his lines when somebody thumps into the seat beside him and throws one arm around his shoulders. From the smell of motor oil and stale sugar, he can guess as to who it is. His guess is not wrong.

“What’s up?” Souda yells right in his ear.

“Uh, hey, Souda,” Hinata says. “Wh...uh…” He was about to say _why are you acting like we’re best friends all of a sudden._ He was raised to be polite, however, so the words freeze on the tip of his tongue before he can say them, but the question remains. Normally, Souda never gives him so much as a sideways glance. “Is there a reason you’re so happy to see me?”

Souda looks almost crushed. “What? Does a guy have to have a reason to talk to his friend?”

Friend. That’s news.

“So listen, Hinata,” the boy continues without waiting for an answer, “you’ve been hanging out with Miss Sonia lately, right?”

Ah, Hinata adds two and two together. Suddenly, the reason for Souda’s behavior is crystal clear.

“Yeah, I have,” he replies. "We're pretty good friends."

“Perfect, _just_ what I wanted to hear,” continues Souda. He still hasn’t taken his arms from around Hinata’s shoulders, and Hinata sits uncomfortably in his rather viselike grasp. “So, uh, has she ever talked about me?”

“Not, uh, not that I know of.” This reply causes Souda’s megawatt grin to dim slightly.

“Never?”

“Not once.” Hinata slightly regrets his choice of words. Maybe that was a little too harsh.

“Oh. Uh. I was hoping maybe she had. Cause, you know, I think she’s really hot and all, and, uh, I’ve been trying for a couple of months to get her to notice me. I keep leaving notes in her locker, but I don’t think she ever gets them. They keep showing up in the trashcan. I’ve been thinking it’s probably Tanaka, you know, stealing them so he can eliminate the competition. But I'm gonna make sure she knows how I feel about her. I just _know_ she would probably fall for me, ya know, if she gave me a chance,” Souda rambles.

Hinata wants to say _uh, well, that’s great, hope that works out for you,_ and go back to his lines, but as he turns to Souda to do so, he notices the other boy’s crushed expression. A mixture of pity and guilt (although the guilt, he isn’t sure what for) rises in his chest, and he swallows his words.

“Hey, you know, maybe I could, uh, put in a good word for you or something. With Sonia. I could, uh, talk to her for you.” He mentally cringes as soon as the words leave his mouth. _Why_ did he say that?

The resulting reaction from Souda makes him feel as though he’s just signed a contract with the guy. Like this is one of Chiaki’s videogames and he’s just triggered a convoluted and unnecessary sidequest. Not a good feeling.

“Really?” Souda beams. “That’s _awesome,_ Hinata! _Thanks!”_ He throws his other arm around Hinata and squeezes the life out of him in a hug.

While Hinata regrets his life decisions and gasps for air, Souda, his head pressed to Hinata’s chest, says happily, “You know, I’m thinkin’ you’re the kind of guy I could call a friend!”

_Friend is kind of a strong word,_ Hinata would say, if he had the breath to do so.

“Maybe even a _soul_ friend!”

_Definitely too strong._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pray for hinata and his thirsty new soul friend


	13. Fuyuhiko

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally settling back into a regular writing groove, hallelujah

It's the Thursday before winter vacation. Everyone in the auditorium that day seems to be just a little more enthusiastic, a little more motivated by the holidays ahead of them. The members of Miss Monomi's Advanced Choir class are preparing for the busy day they'll have tomorrow.  Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu is not one of them, but he is feeling a certain amount of nervousness as he tries to focus on his lines.

Five minutes earlier, everyone practicing their lines in the auditorium had been interrupted by one Junko Enoshima.

"Everyone!" the choreographer called,  clapping her hands. "Listen up!"

Mukuro Ikusaba stood just behind and to the left of her twin sister. Watching them, it struck Fuyuhiko how different they looked.

"So, me and Mukuro have our birthdays the day before Christmas," announced Junko. Mukuro said nothing.

"But since all of you will be on vacation or something around then, we will be having our party this Saturday evening at the skating rink! And you lovelies are all invited to come!"

"I don't know how to ice skate," someone murmured fretfully from the row behind Fuyuhiko.  It sounded like Ishimaru.

"The party's from six thirty until whenever, so no leaving early like a wimp! No skimping on the gifts, either--one present for each twin. And I had better see each and every one of your faces there, or else!" Junko said half-jokingly, shaking a finger at her audience.

So now Fuyuhiko is practically biting his nails off. It's not because he's scared of Junko. No way Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu could be scared of a girl (or so his little sister would say-he himself isn’t quite sure).

He’s scared because he wants to ask Peko out. The party would be the perfect place to do it, and he knows it, but the problem is mustering enough courage.

He's had this plan for weeks now. Get her alone somewhere, then ask her out. The first step of his plan is actually quite easy--Peko doesn’t like it at her house, so she usually comes over to the Kuzuryuu house to study or do whatever. But it’s one thing to tell yourself you’re going to do it, and a wildly different thing to actually say it, especially when she’s looking right at you with her pretty eyes--

“Hey, Kazoo!”

Fuyuhiko screams a little and jumps about a foot in his chair. He whips around angrily, ready to cuss someone out for sneaking up on him, and Ibuki is there, regarding him with wide, excited eyes.  
“What’s up, Kazoo?” she asked, folding her arms and resting them on the back of his chair. She doesn’t tease him for screaming, which makes him feel a little better. Of course, Ibuki is one of the few people in his class he doesn’t really mind. She is a little annoying, though.

Fuyuhiko crosses his arms and looks away. “What do you want?” he grumbles.

Ibuki props her chin up on her hands and regards him with a knowing grin. "If this was an anime, Kuzuryuu would have had big hearts drawn on his eyes just now," she chirps.

Fuyuhiko scoffs. "That's fuckin' stupid."

Ibuki takes no notice of the insult.  She sings under her breath, "Kuzu and Peko, sittin' in a tree..."

Fuyuhiko twists around in his seat, sputtering wildly.  "How the hell do you-"

Ibuki's grin grows to one of shit-eating proportions. "Ibuki didn't. But thank you for confirming her theory!"

He stares at her a moment, speechless.

"...I hate you."

"Aw, don't be like that!" Ibuki chirps, throwing an arm around Fuyuhiko's shoulders. He tries to wriggle free, but she has a viselike grip.

"If you ask Ibuki-"

"I didn't-"

"If you ask Ibuki,  Peko is a quality choice of crush! She's like Artemis the huntress, except maybe that isn't so good for Fuyuhiko, because Artemis swore off men for eternity and the one time a man saw her naked she turned him into a stag for his own hunting dogs to rip apart.  You know what? Bad comparison. Ibuki apologizes."

"Great. Now I'm imagining asking her out and her turning me into a fuckin' deer."

"YOU'RE GONNA-" Ibuki screeches, and Fuyuhiko claps a hand over her mouth just in time. She glares at him, and a second later he withdraws the hand hurriedly.

"Oh, fucking gross," he yelps, then scowls viciously and scrubs the spit off of his hand and onto Ibuki's jacket.

"Yeah, I wanna ask her out," he admits. Then he glares. "And if you let anybody else know about it, they're never gonna find your body!"

"Kazoo, we both know you're too soft to kill me," Ibuki replies, completely serious. "But you won't have to, because Ibuki is gonna help!"

"...What."

Ibuki throws her arms wide. "Ibuki will make sure you get that booty! Just call her your wingman! Or call her your wingwoman. It doesn't matter!"

Fuyuhiko eyes her distrustfully. Ibuki smiles so widely he thinks her cheeks might crack.

"You really...wanna help?"

"Trust me! Ibuki is an expert in all things romantical! How do you think she landed that hunka burnin' love down there?"

Fuyuhiko's gaze briefly flicks to the seventh row, where Byakuya is reading his lines.

"Plus, Ibuki and Peko are like _that!"_  Ibuki hooks her pinkies together. "She can totally help set you guys up!"

Fuyuhiko knows he needs help. He sighs.

"Fine. You can help me if you want." He pretends to be reluctant, unable to give up his pride.

Ibuki squeals and hugs him again, ignoring his flinch and squeezing him even tighter than before.

"You won't regret this!" she whispers fiercely.

Unaware he's in the same position that Hinata was recently, Fuyuhiko fervently hopes not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ibuki, the shsl matchmaker


	14. It's Hard To Keep Track In This One, But Mostly Hinata/Ibuki

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i sat down to write this chapter like a month ago and writer's block hit me and i was just like "hello darkness my old friend"

_"WHAT UP,  BITCHES!?"_ sounds a scream from the hallway. A second later, Ibuki bursts into the green room, decked out in a red and white Santa hat and carrying several small gift bags.

"Who's ready for Caroling Day?" she yells enthusiastically. Everyone in the room smiles and hopes they haven't suffered hearing damage.

Ibuki is the second to last to arrive. Every member of Naegi's group is already present, and only Komaeda is now missing from Sonia's.

The leader checks her attendance form, checks off Ibuki's name, and offers a silent prayer that Komaeda will show up before the first bell. With their huge stacks of song orders, the Advanced Choir groups will need to begin immediately if they're going to cover every class.

"And who is sending cheesy songs to their friends and more-than-friends this year?" trills Ibuki,  picking up one of the piles and flipping through it carefully.

"Well, this is certainly interesting! All I Want For Christmas Is You from Touko Fukawa to Byakuya Togami...I'll assume it's the skinny one. Santa Baby from Teruteru Hanamura to some poor girl. Oh, Jesus, when will that perv give it up? Jingle Bell Rock from Junko Enoshima to Makoto Naegi and another one to Hajime Hinata-what a salty revenge plot, let's just throw them out and keep her two dollars. And... _oooh!"_

Ibuki claps a hand to her mouth. Hinata inches over to peer over her shoulder. He raises his eyebrows silently. Across the room, Asahina drops her folder.

"What is it?" pleads Tanaka, leaning over to see.

Ibuki's eyes are wide as she holds the paper aloft.

"One order of All I Want For Christmas Is You,  from our very own Aoi Asahina to one Sakura Oogami!"

Everyone gasps right on cue. Asahina blushes furiously.

"She's my friend," she whispers, embarrassed.

"There's no way," Byakuya says, arms folded. "That's the single most romantic song on our list. You have to like her at least a little, I'd bet my hand or something."

Asahina, unusually, bites her lip and looks away. "Okay, well, maybe I do like her," she admits. Beside her, Ishimaru smiles and puts a hand on her shoulder.  She returns him a grateful look.

"That's so cute, Aoi," coos Sayaka, hugging her from behind.

"The pre-calc teacher's gonna be pissed," mutters Asahina. "He doesn't like having his class interrupted on Caroling Day. S' not like it'll be that romantic."

"We also have another unscheduled stop to make today," announces Ibuki,  plucking an empty form from the pile on the makeup counter. "Ibuki's already got the dollar to pay for it. From a secret admirer to Peko Pekoyama."

Everyone stares. "If I may ask, who is this admirer?" asks Tanaka.

Ibuki makes the lip-zipping motion. "Sorry! It's all part of Ibuki's big plan."

"Sounds like quite the plan," Byakuya says. Bent over filling out her form,  Ibuki doesn't notice him exchange a glance with Tanaka.

Sonia chooses not to get involved in whatever might be going on. She has bigger fish to fry. Like, _where the hell is-_

~

Hinata is minding his own business and sorting through his sheet music when somebody shrieks like a banshee and jumps on his back. He goes down hard, his music folder flying from his hands.

"What the _fuck-"_ he sputters.

"Good morning, Hinata!" chirps Komaeda, right in his ear.

"Get the fuck off of me!" Hinata yells, thoughts clouded somewhat because his left kneecap feels like it just broke. Komaeda hops off of him and flops into the armchair Hinata's standing next to.

"Poor Hinata," he sighs as Hinata pulls up his pant leg and finds only a scrape. "Sorry about your knee." Suddenly, he leans off the chair and into Hinata's personal space. "You want me to kiss it better?"

Hinata's head snaps up. Komaeda has a flirtatious grin on his face, although considering his usual demeanor Hinata honestly can't tell if he's flirting or not. (And does that say something about him, that he’d probably say yes if Komaeda wasn’t kidding? Probably. Hinata is a sad, sad boy.)

"Fuck you," Hinata says finally, unwilling to take the risk. He’s also still a little resentful over his knee, and, he notices, his sheet music,  which is spread across the floor. Too late he remembers the folder flying from his hand.

Komaeda pouts in mock disappointment.

"What?" Hinata says defensively. "You jumped on my fucking back! What's wrong with you?"

Komaeda shrugs. "Well, I can't argue with that. I didn't know you would fall, though. I am sorry about that."

Hinata considers it, then sighs. "Fine. Thank you."

"So you don't want me to kiss it?"

 _“Stooop!”_ shrieks Hinata, feeling his cheeks flush, and Komaeda laughs at him.

Sonia’s voice cuts in, ending the moment abruptly. (What moment? There was never a moment.)

“So you’re here, Komaeda,” she says approvingly, and her pen scratches off the last name on her checklist. At that exact moment, through incredible timing or maybe just luck, the first period bell rings, and the hallway outside magically fills with students.

“Alright, team, that’s our cue!” Sonia shouts, as if she’s the leader of a team of superheroes. She’s even posing, the hand holding her clipboard dramatically pointing to the sky. “It’s time to go out there and deliver the Christmas spirit!”

“You heard her, guys,” Naegi says to his team with a smile.

Ibuki kicks open the green room door.

“Remember to be quiet in the hallway!” Sonia reminds everyone. “The band is rehearsing right now!”

Everyone can hear the band; the sounds of-is that Fall Out Boy, Hinata thinks, because that’s amazing and ridiculous at the same time-are coming from the band room.

“We’re not allowed to interrupt the band rehearsal," Ibuki says sadly. "So we'll have to hit Pekopeko up later."

Hinata looks through the window in the band room door as the group passes by. Peko is playing an oboe in the second row, while in front of her, Fuyuhiko is on trumpet.

Caroling with Sonia's group turns out to be loads of fun. Ibuki corners Hinata before they enter their first classroom and crams a Santa hat on his head, but when she does the same thing to everyone else in the group, it isn't quite as embarrassing.

Their first request is the one from Touko Fukawa to the mysterious "real" Byakuya Togami. Strangely enough, there seems to be no significant tension between the two Togamis, but the song is made awkward by the fact that Togami refuses to look at Fukawa or acknowledge her presence for the entire time.

As they leave, Hinata feels a little sorry for the girl. Although she doesn't look too torn up; in fact, when they leave, she's still staring after Real Togami with the same dreamy eyed expression she was when they entered.

Hinata leaves feeling slightly creeped out and not sure why.

Most of the remaining requests go much more normally. They sing All I Want For Christmas Is You to countless people, again and again until Hinata feels like they’ll all go insane if they have to sing it one more time. He could sing that song in his goddamn sleep.

After about an hour, they see Naegi’s group rounding the corner up ahead.

“Hey, guys!” calls Naegi. The group slows to a stop as they realize how ragged and downtrodden Sonia’s group is. Even Ibuki looks ready to pass out on Byakuya.

Sonia marches up to Naegi and jabs his chest with one red fingernail.

“You,” she hisses, “are taking All I Want For Christmas next year.”

Naegi looks perplexed, but quails under the force of Sonia’s glare. “Uh, sure...?”

“So how are you guys doing?” chirps Ishimaru. He is met with six dead-eyed stares.

“If we are forced to sing that abominable melody again, we may be driven to madness,” groans Tanaka.

“What? Dude, I love that song!” This from Leon. “Dude, you’re lucky. We just have a bunch of old songs. I’d love to sing that one!”

Chihiro slaps a hand over his mouth. “No. No, you don’t. Don’t you ever say that.”

“Well, you’re going to get your wish next visit, Leon,” Naegi says, flipping through his stack of order sheets.

“What?”

“Sakura Oogami is next on our list, so Asahina’s group will have to sing this one.”

“Oh, god,” moans Asahina, and collapses dramatically against the corridor wall.

“You want to come?” Naegi asks Sonia’s group.

Ibuki springs to her feet, immediately over her bout of song-induced despair. “Would this be Sakura Oogami’s classroom?”

“No,” says a red-faced Aoi, but at the same time that Naegi says, “Yeah.”

“Then hell yeah!” cheers Ibuki.

“Me too,” says Komaeda, putting his elbow on Ibuki’s shoulder. “I want to see what this girl looks like.”

“Is she cute?” asks Hinata. He’s never met Sakura Oogami, in fact he doesn’t even know who she is.

Chihiro exchanges a glance with Ishimaru. “I...guess?”

Whatever that means.

Ten minutes later, Hinata finds out whatever that means.

He, along with Komaeda, Tanaka, Sonia, Byakuya, and Ibuki, are peering through the door of the pre-calculus classroom at the hugest girl Hinata’s ever seen in his life.

Sakura Oogami looks like she could lift Hinata over her head with one hand and throw him across the school courtyard. Hell, she probably could. He doesn’t want to get close enough to find out.

In a sharp contrast to expectations, Sakura blushes heavily as Naegi’s group sings their song, with Asahina taking the solo for this particular performance. When the song ends, Asahina walks up to Sakura's desk to give her the candy cane that comes with the order, and Sakura accepts it with pink cheeks. The person at the desk next to Sakura's, whom Hinata recognizes as Mahiru Koizumi, has her phone out and appears to be Snapchatting the entire exchange.

Asahina comes out of the classroom looking far happier than she did when she came in.

((Hinata makes a mental note to check with Saionji later for Koizumi's video.))

That stop turns out to be the highlight of the day. Hinata’s honestly not sure if he’s having fun or not; on one hand, it’s comforting to know that he’s getting a free pass from his classes, but on the other hand, it’s a lot more tiring than he expected, running from room to room.

Still, he tries his best to keep up.

~

“Ibuki saved this stop for last!” cheers Ibuki, as she leads her group down the hallway.

She remains the only member of the group still filled with energy; Sonia, although trying her best, keeps yawning; Byakuya is more grumpy than usual and is muttering to himself about “skinny people”, and Komaeda has given up entirely and is begging Hinata, unsuccessfully, to carry him.

“Cheer up, gang!” Ibuki tells them. “This is our last stop!”

She’s saved Peko’s song for last, because eighth-period English is the only class besides band that Fuyuhiko and Peko have together, and she wants to make sure Fuyuhiko is there to see her plan in action. Her brilliant, brilliant plan.

Because this is only phase one! Ibuki’s plan has many facets, like a diamond or a bug’s eye. Phase one is the carol. All I Want For Christmas Is You is very romantic. And, admittedly, Ibuki kind of hates it right now, but Peko hasn’t been listening to it nonstop for hours, so she’ll probably love it.

Phase two is supposed to happen at Junko and Mukuro’s party tomorrow. Ibuki knows that Peko knows how to ice skate, but Fuyuhiko doesn’t. So she’s going to suggest, in a very un-suspicious way, that Peko teach him how. This will ensure that they spend at least an hour together, probably holding each other’s hands for balance.

Phase three is the slow song. They play music at the ice rink, and every seven songs, they play a slow song for all the lovebirds. If Fuyuhiko plays his cards right, phase four will be as easy to reach as the candy your mom hides on top of the refrigerator because she thinks you don’t know about it. Just grab a chair and problem solved!

Phase four is the kiss. Obviously.

Ibuki bursts into the room, and the twenty students doing worksheets look up in surprise, then settle into the usual goddamnit-the-fucking-carolers-are-back-again expressions.

"Helloooo, everyone!" Ibuki whoops. "We have a very special request for Peko Pekoyama from a secret admirer!"

Both Fuyuhiko and Peko look up, startled.

Ibuki didn't tell Fuyuhiko about this part of the plan.

Ibuki leads Sonia's group through their rendition of All I Want For Christmas Is You, as enthusiastically as she can. Peko sits frozen in her chair, a stunned expression on her face. Fuyuhiko figures out that this is Ibuki's matchmaking about halfway through and hides his face in his hands.

They're going to be so cute together. Ibuki just knows it.

~

"Excuse me, rambunctious one," Tanaka addresses her, as the six members of the group leave, finally free for the day.

"Yeah?" Ibuki is immensely proud of herself and her matchmaking abilities,  and is fantasizing about what Kuzupeko's first kiss is going to be like.

"I would like to ask, what was the purpose of that last visit?"

"Oh, it was part of Ibuki's romantic plan!"

Judging by the perplexed look on Tanaka's face, he doesn't get it. "Which...is?"

Ibuki gives him an overdramatic wink. "Let's just say, Peko Pekoyama is gonna have a cute new datemate by tomorrow evening!"

She pulls off her Santa hat and runs to catch up with Byakuya, leaving Tanaka staring after her, utterly confused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next time on for your entertainment: more drama! more romance! more bloodshed! until next time, beauties!


	15. Ibuki

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> birthday party part one, part two coming soon!  
> i think you guys are gonna like this one

"Hey!" Someone calls out to Ibuki as she makes her way through the parking lot of the local ice rink.

Ibuki pauses with one hand on the door handle and turns.

Hinata runs up to her, out of breath from his twenty-foot jog. Wisps of white drift from his mouth as he gasps for air.

"You know, Hajammers," Ibuki says, watching him, "you should consider an exercise regimen." She holds open the door for him as they enter the building.

Hinata smirks. "Don't Junko's choreography lessons count?"

"Hardly," Ibuki tells him. "Dedicated performers have to put in extra training on their own time. Most people take dance, but Ibuki would rather hang out in the gym before school to strengthen her legs. It's been extra entertaining since Souda started showing up in the mornings."

"Ugh. Don't get me started on Souda." Hinata sits down on a bench near the door to change in his skates, and Ibuki follows suit. "That guy keeps following me around during rehearsal and it's just getting weird."

They stand on their skates, balancing carefully on the rubber floor. Ibuki opens her mouth to answer, but Hinata grabs her wrist before they reach the door.

"Uh, hold on," he says. "I wanted to ask you something. That's why I ran up to you in the parking lot, but I'd forgotten about it until now."

Ibuki wiggles her eyebrows and poses against the wall. "Well, well, well! What could this be? A surprise confession from Hajime? You should already know Ibuki is taken, but considering your wildly attractive appearance, she could consider finding out how Byakuya feels about a threesome."

"Oh my god, please don't say anything else," groans Hinata. "I am _not_ asking you out! And I definitely don't want a threesome with anyone, least of all Byakuya!"

"Hey, that's Ibuki's wildly attractive datemate you're talking about!"

Hinata brings a hand to his temple. He seems to have somehow gotten a headache.

"Oh, relax, Ibuki is just messing with you! She already knows you're after Komaeda's fine ass, not hers."

Hinata's head whips up and he turns violently red. Ibuki pats his shoulder sympathetically.

After a moment, he clears his throat. "My question was about Komaeda. I, uh, wanted to know if you know if he's a good ice skater?"

Ibuki pauses. "Not sure. Ibuki might have seen him at the pond during last year's winter festival. If she's thinking of the right person, then yes. Why?"

"Well, I may have...never skated before," admits Hinata.

Ibuki gasps. "Oh, my god. You were going for the classic "teach me how to skate" setup seen in mediocre fanfiction, weren't you?"

Hinata looks away. "So what if I was? Is there something wrong with that?"

Actually, there isn't, aside from the overused-fanfic-cliche thing. In fact, it's almost exactly what Ibuki was planning on setting Fuyuhiko and Peko up with later.

"Not at all, not a tall! Ibuki's got plans of her own, though, so she's got to go! See you when they cut the cake! Here's hoping it's chocolate!" Ibuki pushes open the door, and Hinata follows her into the rink.

There are already several students present. Ibuki doesn't see Byakuya or Fuyuhiko, but Peko is already here, skating in slow figure-eights by herself. Sonia and Tanaka are skating together, and so are Chiaki and Mikan. Junko is skating around at top speed, narrowly avoiding several people and sending the occasional person crashing to the ground. Mukuro has, for once, separated from her sister, and is skating with Asahina.

Ibuki scans everyone and deduces that Byakuya, Fuyuhiko, Hagakure, and Saionji are the only ones still absent.

Junko skates up to her. "Good to see you, Mioda! Presents go on the table in the other room." She points to the door to the side of the rink and skates off without another word.

Ibuki thinks to herself that half the class is here because they like Mukuro, and the other half because they’re scared of Junko.

Komaeda waves to her on his way past. She waves back as she heads for the door.

The table in the other room is already piled high with presents, and a huge cake sits in the middle. Balancing carefully on her skate blades in the foam-carpeted room, Ibuki deposits her own on the pile, sniffs the cake (chocolate, thank god, and it looks homemade) and enters the rink again, spirits high.

Spirits get even higher when she sees Fuyuhiko peering through the doorway she entered from. He spots her and waves frantically, and Ibuki skates over.

Fuyuhiko practically yanks her through the doorway, and she yelps. “Hey, excuse you! Ibuki could have tripped and cracked her beautiful head open! Walking on these things-” she lifts one skate “-is like using stilts.”

Fuyuhiko doesn’t pay any attention. He’s pressing his nose against the window by the door, scanning the crowd, and Ibuki realizes he’s looking for Peko.

“So today’s gonna be the big day, huh?” she prompts him.

He turns to her. The expression on his face is a bit weird, and after a second Ibuki realizes he looks scared. She can’t honestly remember having seen Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu scared before.

“What was it like when you asked Byakuya out?” he asks her. “It was you, right? He doesn’t seem like the type to do that kind of stuff.”

Ibuki debates. “It’s kind of a long story. But if you’re looking for love confession advice from Ibuki, I don’t think you should copy her methods. Fuyuhiko is his own person and he’s gotta do it his way.” Not to mention, her preferred method of wooing Byakuya was to play electric guitar outside his window. Probably not the best way for Fuyuhiko to go about things. Peko doesn’t like loud music.

“I just don’t know what to say to her!” he mutters. “Not to mention I can’t just go out there and tell her in front of everybody.”

“Well, don’t do that anyway,” Ibuki advises him. “Public proposals are tacky and manipulative. Ibuki saw that in a cartoon once. Where this little fat kid wanted to go out with this girl, but he kept asking her in public so everybody would expect her to say yes. Don’t be the little fat kid, Fuyuhiko.”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about anymore and I don’t want to know,” Fuyuhiko says. Ibuki debates for a moment.

“Listen, let Ibuki go talk to Peko for a sec. She can use her charming personality and find some way to get her over here. I think we can skip over the skating lesson Ibuki had planned, and you can just go straight to asking her out. How about that?"

Fuyuhiko shifts. Ibuki knows he has a lot of pride, so she lets him pretend to think about it.

“...Can you, uh. Do that. Please?”

“Sure thing! Leave it to your trusty sidekick, Ibuki!” Ibuki opens the door and goes back in, leaving Fuyuhiko to wait.

She locates Peko easily. The other girl is still skating by herself, a little separated from everyone else. On her way over, Ibuki passes Mondo, who is trying to convince Ishimaru to let go of the wall. For some reason, Ishimaru is wearing a helmet.

“Hey, Peko!” she chirps, skating up to the other girl. Peko looks up, startled, for the person calling her.

“Oh. Hello, Ibuki.” She nods in greeting and focuses back on her skates.

“So, listen. Ibuki couldn’t help but notice that Peko got a special order yesterday. For the carols.”

“Yes, I did.” Peko looks up curiously. "I'm still not sure who sent it."

“Ibuki was just wondering how she liked her special performance,” Ibuki says innocently, leaning on the wall. “All I Want For Christmas Is You was getting a bit annoying by the end of the day, but she hopes you liked it anyway.”

“Yes, I suppose I did enjoy it,” Peko says after a moment. “It was very sweet. You looked like you were having fun.”

“Well, thank you! Ibuki always enjoys a good performance! Especially for a pretty girl.” Ibuki wiggles her eyebrows in her typical fashion. Peko blinks in response.

“This conversation is nice, but Ibuki’s getting a little thirsty. Mind walking her to the water fountain? Or...skating her to the water fountain?” Ibuki laughs a little at her own lame joke.

Peko even laughs as well, then smiles. “Sure, Ibuki.” She turns and skates back towards the door, and Ibuki does a silent fist pump as she follows.

~

On the other side of the rink, Tanaka stares after the two girls leaving.

"What are you looking at?" Sonia says, trying to stand on tiptoe with skates on, which turns out not to be very stable.

Tanaka clears his throat. "Er, would you excuse me, she-cat? I need to go take care of something, quickly."

Sonia slips her hands out of his. "I'll be here," she tells him, and Tanaka takes off for the door, scarf billowing behind him dramatically.

~

Peko is the first to push open the door. Fuyuhiko is on the other side, and he tries his best to look casual and lean back against the wall as the door opens.

Peko smiles and waves to him as she goes by. Fuyuhiko attempts to wave back, but ends up looking like he broke his fingers.

Ibuki enters next and gives Fuyuhiko a wink and a thumbs up behind Peko's back.

Peko says, "Excuse me, I'll be right out," and vanishes into the bathroom.  

At that exact moment, Tanaka crashes through the door, loses his balance as the floor changes from ice to rubber, and falls flat on his face.

"Holy shit!" yelps Fuyuhiko.

Tanaka pushes himself up, spluttering. Ibuki goes to help him, but he waves away her hand and gets to his feet.

He grabs Ibuki's shirt, and she leans back. "Whoa, hamsterhead. Hands off the merch, okay?"

"No, wait!" Tanaka pleads. "Listen to me, songful one! Please do not do this!"

Ibuki blinks in total confusion.

"What the hell is happening?" says Fuyuhiko from somewhere behind her.

"I know that Miss Pekoyama is an attractive individual, but I was led to believe you were already in a committed and happy relationship!" Tanaka continues. "And what about your substantial soulmate? Are you really going to do this to him?"

"Wait, what?" Ibuki and Fuyuhiko both say at the same time.

"Just now, I saw your flirtatious manner with Pekoyama!  And I confess, at first, I planned to stay out of it. However, I consider Byakuya a good friend. It may not be my place to say so, but I must ask you to reconsider this plan to seduce the stoic one." Tanaka releases Ibuki's shirt, suddenly realizing he's still holding it, and wipes his palms, which were covered in slush from the floor.

"What the fuck?" says Fuyuhiko, at the very moment that Peko comes out of the bathroom.

Ibuki sees her, remembers the plan, and says, "I gotta talk to you!"

"NO!" Tanaka and Fuyuhiko yell.

Peko's eyes widen. "What? What's going on?"

"Ibuki was going to ask you out!" Tanaka blurts. Fuyuhiko punches him in the shoulder.

Peko blinks calmly. "Thank you, but I was already aware."

Suddenly, everything snaps into place.

Ibuki starts laughing so hard she loses balance on her skates and falls down.

"WILL SOMEBODY EXPLAIN WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?" yells Fuyuhiko. Tanaka claps his hands over his ears.

Ibuki's stomach is beginning to hurt. She manages to sit up, still shaking with laughter.

"I...get it now!" she gasps between breaths. "You...you all thought I was trying to get with Peko!  Oh my _god!"_

Peko raises one eyebrow. "Weren't you?"

"No!" howls Ibuki. "Ibuki was only playing the faithful matchmaker! The one who likes you is fuzzhead over there!"

Fuyuhiko touches his short hair. "F-fuzzhead?!"

Peko's head snaps from Ibuki to him. Her mouth opens slightly.

"Oh." Her cheeks flush. _"...Oh."_

"What?" says Tanaka, slightly confused. "So...your relationship is not in jeopardy after all?"

"No, Tanaka," says Peko. "I...believe I understand it now." She takes a step towards Fuyuhiko.

"All those things Ibuki did weren't supposed to be flirty," complains Ibuki from the floor. Now that she's over her laughing fit, she's disappointed that her matchmaking skills aren't what she thought they were.

Peko takes another step. "So, if I'm correct, you were the one with affections for me the whole time?"

Fuyuhiko turns red. He scratches the back of his neck awkwardly and tries to keep eye contact. "Um. Yeah."

A moment of silence between the four people in the room.

"Fuyuhiko, I..." Peko trails off, then starts again. "I...the feeling is mutual."

Ibuki struggles to her feet and clings to Tanaka's arm for balance. He is uncharacteristically silent, and the two watch the unfolding action like a movie audience.

Fuyuhiko looks up, a stunned expression on his face. "You...what?"

Peko takes a deep breath and reaches for his hand. He looks down in surprise but doesn't pull his hand away.

"I like you too," Peko declares. "Would you...like to go out with me?"

"Yeah," says Fuyuhiko immediately. "Yeah!"

He spins away from her and punches the air. _"YEAH!"_

Peko laughs, covering her mouth with her hands.

"We should probably leave," whispers Ibuki, tugging on Tanaka's sleeve. He snaps out of his distraction, and the two slowly turn and head for the door.

Ibuki looks over her shoulder once as they leave to see that Peko and Fuyuhiko are hugging each other.

She feels a swell of pride. Mission accomplished.

...Even if it didn't go the way she planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you liked the chapter! remember to rate the chapter, comment the chapter, and subscribe if you wanna see chapters similar to this one. see ya


	16. Tanaka/A Brief Appearance by Ishimaru

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> updating a bit earlier than planned, because i have show nights until sunday and might not be able to write. our school is putting on a bunch of one act plays and i'm starring in one, so wish me luck!!  
> enjoy birthday party part deux

“So,” Sonia says, when she sees her boyfriend returning. "I saw that through the window. What...exactly happened in there?"

"I am not exactly sure," admits Tanaka. "But Kuzuryuu and Miss Pekoyama are now in a relationship."

"Really?" gasps Sonia with sparkling eyes. "That sounds amazing! It's just like a scene out of an old soap opera! Maybe I should have followed you in there after all." She leans over to try to see something through the door.

Tanaka catches her wrist gently. "Miss Sonia," he reminds her, "we should really leave them alone."

Just then, Byakuya comes through the door. For someone of his size, he moves surprisingly smoothly on the ice. As Sonia and Tanaka watch, Ibuki zooms across the ice to say hello, skating straight into Byakuya and literally bouncing off. Byakuya appears to greet her, then furrows his brow and points behind him to the door. Tanaka can't lip read, but if he had to guess what Byakuya was saying,  it would be _why did I just pass two people making out in the middle of the hallway?_

"Oh! Look, Gundam!" says Sonia, pointing to Chiaki and Mikan. "I didn't know Chiaki had arrived yet! Let's go say hello!"

~

A few minutes later on the other side of the rink, Mondo is still unsuccessful.

"Come on, Kiyo," he pleads. "You're never going to be able to balance if you don't let go of the wall!"

"Absolutely not!" answers Ishimaru, still clinging to the wall as if, by pressing himself against it hard enough, he can somehow phase through it to the other room. "This is so unsafe. Why do people even enjoy this as a recreational activity? Why can't we do something less...slippery? Why can't we go swimming?"

Now he's just babbling aimlessly to distract himself from worrying about the ice.

"Look, uh," he hears Mondo say after a moment, "why don't you go take a break? Sit down in the hallway for a little bit. I can find a chair or something. This rink has a bunch of those walker things they use to teach people to skate, I think."

Ishimaru nods frantically. "Yes! Good idea! I'll go-" he flails his arms a little, slowly turning around, "-sit down." Using the handholds on the wall, he makes his way slowly but surely, to the door.

Once his hands are on the doorknob, Ishimaru feels much more comfortable. He lets out a sigh as he steps into the other room and turns around to watch the others skate while he pulls off his own skates. Carrying them by their laces, he turns around-

-and freezes as he realizes there are people already in the hallway.

Peko and Fuyuhiko are frozen, staring at the intruder.

From where Ishimaru is standing, he can see that Peko's braided hair is coming undone, that Fuyuhiko's arms are around her waist, and that both people have discarded their skates, which lay to the side, abandoned.

Nobody moves for a good thirty seconds. Fuyuhiko's face slowly reddens further with each passing moment.

Ishimaru drops his skates.

~

“So I’ve been giving Invading Black Dragon Cham-P pumpkin seeds,” Tanaka tells Sonia. “We had a tiny pumpkin on our kitchen table as a Halloween decoration, so I allowed Cham-P to have it when the holiday was over. She has devoured it with fervor and she seems to enjoy-”

Someone pokes Tanaka in the shoulder and he turns around. It’s Fuyuhiko, looking very sour.

“Ishimaru kicked us out of the hallway,” he complains. Peko arrives after her new boyfriend, retying one of her braids.

“He kept saying something about disrespecting our peers and public morals,” she adds. “I don’t know if he understands he’s not really allowed to kick us out of anywhere, but I didn't want him to get too upset. Public displays of affection really seem to bother him for some reason.”

“Yes, I heard that you two are dating now!” Sonia embraces Peko tightly, and Peko returns the gesture. “Congratulations!” The two girls begin a conversation and move away from the boys.

Tanaka and Fuyuhiko face each other.

“I’m not hugging you,” blurts Tanaka.

“I didn’t want you to!” Fuyuhiko scowls.

Tanaka clears his throat awkwardly. “Yes, well, even if I had such a desire, touching my bare skin would not be advised, as the poison running through my veins is capable of decomposing you rapidly upon contact.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Fuyuhiko scoffs. “Doesn’t stop you from makin’ out with Sonia all the time, does it?”

Tanaka flushes. “Excuse me, but Miss Sonia is _not_ a mere mortal. Her title is the Lady of Darkness, as you well know, and might I mention, _you_ have just gotten in trouble for making out in the middle of a hallway!”

“You wanna fuckin’ go?” sputters Fuyuhiko.

"If you mean do I wish to defend the honor of my Lady of Darkness, I will gladly "fucking go"!" snaps Tanaka.

"Fine with me, fuckass!" snarls Fuyuhiko.

“What’s going on here?” says Peko from right behind him, and he jumps a mile.

“Tanaka, I appreciate your dedication to my honor, but there is no need to start a fight over something so pointless!” Sonia scolds. Tanaka turns pink with embarrassment, and Fuyuhiko hangs his head slightly.

“Uh, sorry, I guess?” Fuyuhiko says after a second.

Tanaka pulls his scarf up slightly. “Yes. I apologize as well. It was wrong of me to become so agitated."

“We are at a birthday party, we are all friends, and we are going to have a good time!” Sonia declares.

“In fact, it looks like Junko is about to say something now,” Peko notes, pointing.

Everyone turns to see Junko standing nearby. She claps her hands loudly to get the attention of everyone present.

“Hey, everyone! We’re about to open presents and cut the cake! If you would all be so kind as to get your butts in here!” With that, Junko disappears again.

“You know, if she was going to invite everyone to her party, she could do something other than skate by herself,” Fuyuhiko complains.

“It’s Mukuro’s party, too,” Peko reminds him, slipping her hand into his. “I was with her earlier. Although she doesn’t seem to like skating much. She says she likes it when her feet are planted on the ground.”

“Figures,” Fuyuhiko scoffs. “I bet Junko picked an ice skating party just because Mukuro hates it.”

There’s a moment of silence as the four of them realize this is actually the most likely reason.

“Man, she’s a bitch,” Fuyuhiko says, more quietly.

“Well!” Sonia says. “We should go watch them open their presents.”

~

The room where the table of presents is located is a bit small, and with almost thirty people trying to fit, it is extremely cramped. There are a few benches, which they pile onto, but several people have to sit on the wet floor, putting their discarded skates beside them.

Mukuro enters the room and sees some of them sitting in puddles. Her eyes widen in surprise. “We have towels, you know. Do you want some?” she asks.

Souda jumps up from the floor. “Shit, yes! My butt is soaking wet!” he complains. Mukuro raises one eyebrow, but says nothing and threads her way through the sitting people and forces open a closet in the back of the room. She begins handing out towels, to the exclaimed gratitude of the other students.

Souda shakes out his own towel, then offers Sonia a yellow one with a lascivious grin. “Allow me, Miss Sonia.”

“Oh, you shouldn’t have,” she mutters, but gets up and allows Souda to spread the towel for her anyway. Tanaka notices that Souda very pointedly avoids giving him a towel, but as soon as he turns away Sonia scoots over on hers so they can both fit.

“Oh, looks like there’s no room on the floor,” remarks Komaeda, the last to fit into the room. Mukuro is empty-handed, having just given Hagakure the last towel.

Silently, Hinata slides over on his bench, leaving a tiny amount of space.

“Oh, there’s no need!” Komaeda says cheerfully. He plunks himself down between Mikan and Souda, the latter of whom gives him a sour look and tries to scoot away from him and closer to Sonia. Without so much as a word, she elbows him away from her spot.

Hinata mutters something to himself and rests his head in his hands. Tanaka guesses he was hoping to sit next to Komaeda, and wonders why every time a couple finally gets together, there’s suddenly another one in need of matchmaking. No doubt Ibuki will make it happen at some point. Komaeda’s flirtatious manner covers up the fact that he doesn’t have the self confidence to ask anyone out, least of all Hinata, and Hinata obviously needs a push in the right direction.

But Tanaka will be damned if he’s going to get himself involved. An Ascendant Ruler of Ice would never concern himself with affairs of mortal romance. (Although that’s a bit of a lie, considering the Ascendant Ruler of Ice is hopelessly in love. But that is irrelevant.)

Mukuro interrupts his internal monologue by standing at the front of the room and addressing the gathered guests. As she begins to speak, it occurs to Tanaka that her manner of speaking vastly differs from her twin’s. Where Junko is loud, brash, and bossy when she talks to others, Mukuro speaks quietly but seriously.

“I would like to thank you all for coming to our party,” she tells them. “I’m happy to have you all here, especially as I’ve gotten to know most of you over the past few years. This year is my first show with a few of you-” at the mention of the show, Asahina whoops, and a few others join in- “and I hope I can get to know you as well as the others. Hopefully, there are many more shows in our future together.” She gives her audience a rare smile.

“Jeez, is this a birthday party or a funeral, sis?” pipes Junko, already sitting at the table. “These people want cake, not a eulogy! Let’s get the presents over with!”

Mukuro sits without another word, and Junko goes at her half of the pile first.

Junko seems to receive a lot of clothes, Tanaka notices. He himself bought her a black knit scarf, and it seems as though nobody knew her well enough to come up with anything else. Junko Enoshima is, if nothing else, a fashionista, and she accepts each item with the same enthusiasm she always wears. If she gets something like a hat, a sweater, or a scarf, she just puts it on over what she’s already wearing, and by the time she reaches the last present she’s got a tower of beanies and her neck is so covered in scarves Tanaka is surprised she hasn’t choked herself. Apparently from Naegi is a pair of rainbow-striped leg warmers, which clash brilliantly with the yellow leggings Junko has on.

Mukuro waits until her sister has unwrapped the last gift, a pair of purple mittens from Asahina, before picking her first gift.

Tanaka barely knows Mukuro, seeing as this is his first musical. She rarely shows emotion or talks, and so he is surprised at the vast variety of things her friends have given her. Where Junko’s present-opening was almost like some kind of concert, with everyone sitting quietly as they watched, Mukuro’s has a more personal vibe, with everyone chattering and calling out things.

"That's the book I picked!" calls Naegi. "The first book in the Lunar Chronicles!"

"I love that series! Mukuro, you're going to like it, it's so good!" pipes Sayaka in response,  and Mukuro smiles and thanks Naegi sincerely.

A few minutes later, she opens, of all things, a two pound chocolate bar, which turns out to be from Hagakure. It's one of the special edition bars sold only during Christmastime, and Mukuro puts it aside with a promise to share later.

Junko leaves the room at some point without anyone noticing, and just as Mukuro unwraps her last gift (a t-shirt that says MIXED MARTIAL ARTS (AND CRAFTS) with a picture of ninjas holding knitting needles on the front, from Sonia), Junko re-enters the room, holding a rather large knife.

The general reaction is of alarm; Hagakure yelps and falls off the end of his bench, and Ishimaru backs up until he hits the wall. Junko bursts out with laughter once she notices their reactions.  

"What, are you all afraid of little old me?" she croons, batting her eyelashes coquettishly and posing with the knife. "It's just for cutting the cake, ya dumbasses!"

The entire room seem to relax slightly.

Mukuro takes the knife from her sister rather quickly, sensing the importance of separating Junko from things she can hurt people with, and pulls the rather large cake towards her.

"Me first!" yells Souda, springing to his feet, and everyone else surges forward at the same time.  After a slight scuffle, a line is formed, and through either a karmic or unlucky turn of events, Souda is last. Komaeda turns out to be first, and Hinata second.

Everyone elects to take their cake out to the rink rather than stay cooped up in the tiny, damp room,  and five minutes later the rink is once again filled with students. Junko immediately returns to doing laps at top speed, disregarding the very real possibility of her cake ending up on the ice, and several other people narrowly save their own slices as she shoots by.

"I think I'm planning on going home as soon as I finish my cake," Peko remarks as she eats. "Today has been surprisingly tiring."

"I second that," Sonia yawns, leaning her head on Tanaka's shoulder. "Figure skating can really take a lot out of you."

"Well, you better make the most out of your vacation," says Fuyuhiko, "because you know Nidai and Kirigiri are going to work our asses off the second we get back to school."

He bows his head over his cake and intones, "Rest in peace, social life. You will be missed," causing Peko to giggle.

"Miss Sonia, would you care to spend the night at my residence?" Tanaka asks Sonia. It's a Saturday night, the perfect night for her to come over, as neither of their families are churchgoers.

"I believe I can," Sonia replies, yawning. "I'll have to let my parents know. Perhaps we could watch that new horror movie on Netflix? It certainly looks interesting."

"That reminds me," mutters Fuyuhiko, turning to Peko. "Uh, there's this movie coming out next week. I mean, it's just a cartoon movie for kids, but I've been hearing good things about it. So, uh. Maybe you might want to go with me?"

Peko smiles gently. "Of course. I would like that very much."

~

"It was good to see everyone," Sonia chirps as they all gather near the door. She moves through the group easily, saying goodbyes and giving hugs, and stops by the door, where Mukuro and Junko stand like sentries to bid their guests farewell.

"Happy birthday, and thank you for inviting us," Sonia says politely, then hugs Mukuro,  who returns the gesture. "And I hope you have a good Christmas!"

"Happy birthday to you both," Tanaka tells them, not wanting to get nearly as close as Sonia had. Mukuro nods.

"Nice to see ya both," chirps Junko. "And merry Hanukkah! Happy Christmas!"

"Goodbye!" Sonia says, slipping through the door and pulling Tanaka with her.

"Happy greetings!" Junko yells down the hallway. "Season's holidays!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> like and favorite if you enjoyed, and as always, i will see YOU in the next chapter! buh bye!


	17. Pretty Much Everyone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> merry christmas, everyone!!! or hanukkah, or kwanzaa, or whatever holiday you celebrate. i hope you're all enjoying your time off!!  
> this chapter isn't really so much of a chapter as it is a series of text conversations between different characters  
> enjoy

_ Bae:  _ Merry Christmas, Fuyuhiko! :)

_ You:  _ merry xmas peko

_ Bae:  _ Did you get my present?

_ You:  _ yeah opened it this morning

_ You:  _ had 2 hide it from my sis tho

_ You: _ she wouldve made me wear it and then posted shit 2 instagram

_ Bae: _ Ah yes. Because the world can never be allowed to see pictures of Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu in his girlfriend's sweater.

_ You:  _ nonono i didnt mean im embarrassed or anythin i just

_ Bae: _ Don't worry. I was just joking.

_ You:  _ oh

_ You:  _ um i feel really shitty now bc i didnt get u a present

_ Bae:  _ That's fine. Not all high schoolers can have a good paying job like me.

_ You:  _ yeah i didnt even know the froyo place was hiring

_ Bae:  _ Besides, you can repay me by wearing that sweater to school next week so I can get plenty of pictures.  ;)

_ You:  _ sure lmao

_ You:  _ wait a sec that wasnt serious was it

_ You:  _ peko

_ You:  _ peko pls

_ You:  _ well, Shit

~

_ Kiyotaka:  _ Hello!

_ You:  _ hey babe

_ You:  _ you have a good christmas?

_ Kiyotaka:  _ Well I have never really gotten into the holiday spirit much

_ Kiyotaka:  _ My parents don’t really celebrate it! But it was nice to see all the decorations out when I took my evening walks

_ You:  _ damn you shoulda come to my house then

_ You:  _ daiya actually used our oven to cook real food

_ Kiyotaka:  _ I didn’t know your oven worked!

_ Kiyotaka:  _ ((That was a joke))

_ You:  _ yeah i know lmao

_ Kiyotaka:  _ Am I getting any better at jokes??

_ You:  _ of course babe 

_ Kiyotaka:  _ Thanks

_ Kiyotaka:  _ I’m glad we both had good Christmases! Even if it wasn’t together

_ Kiyotaka:  _ I wish I could have been there to personally witness Daiya Oowada cooking!

_ You:  _ i mean he burned the hell outta the chicken but its the thought that counts right

~

_ You:  _ hey!! :)

_ Sakura: _ Hello, Aoi

_ You:  _ so how was christmas??

_ Sakura:  _ It was nice. Although we were snowed in on Christmas Day.

_ You:  _ !!! oh noo!!

_ Sakura:  _ It was alright. We didn’t lose our electricity or heat, luckily.

_ Sakura:  _ How was your Christmas?

_ You:  _ great!!

_ You:  _ ishimaru lives next door to me and we had a snowball fight

_ You:  _ people say snowball fights are for kids and to them i say fuck you!!

_ Sakura:  _ Very eloquent.

_ Sakura:  _ Who won?

_ You:  _ who ya think?? :p

_ You:  _ i beat his ass into the ground lmao

_ You:  _ but hes getting better!!

_ Sakura:  _ Good for him.

_ You:  _ and then he came over and we had cocoa

_ You:  _ hes really jealous of the christmas tree for some reason

_ You:  _ i dont think he has one at his house??

_ You:  _ i feel bad for him tbh

_ Sakura:  _ Well, you are a very compassionate person.

_ You:  _ why thank you!!! ~

_ Sakura:  _ You’re welcome:

_ Sakura:  _ : )

_ You:  _ holy shit an emoticon!!! :o

_ Sakura:  _ I thought it might make you laugh.

_ You:  _ it did!! its kinda

_ You:  _ its kinda cute when you do that

_ Sakura:  _ Th

_ Sakura: _ Thank you

~

_ You: _ Hey!!

_ Mikan:  _ oh hi ko!!

_ You:  _  How was Christmas?

_ Mikan: _ it was good!! chiaki mailed me an amiibo 

_ Mikan:  _ it’s my first amiibo

_ You:  _ Really?? You should have told me, I would have gotten you one

_ Mikan:  _ oh stop i’m getting all blushy

_ Mikan:  _ hey you wanna hear something

_ Mikan: _ it’s this song called marble soda and i think it’s my new aesthetic

_ You: _ Sure

_Mikan:_ [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAeybdD5UoQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAeybdD5UoQ)

_ You:  _ Holy shit

_ Mikan:  _ ikr

_ You:  _ You gotta send that to Ibuki and Sonia

_ Mikan:  _ already on it

_ Mikan:  _ ibuki loves it

_ You: _ Good lmao

_ Mikan: _ oh mom’s calling

_ Mikan:  _ gotta do the dishes, later

_ You: _ See ya girl 

~

_ You: _ hi gundam!!!

_ Gundam: _ Hello, she-cat. How was Christmas?

_ You: _ it was amazing!! especially the decorations imo

_ You:  _ did you get my present??

_ Gundam:  _ Yes and I very much appreciate it

_ Gundam:  _ My old scarf was getting frayed

_ You:  _ i made it myself! i think my knitting skills are improving :)

_ You:  _ i thought purple would look nice

_ Gundam:  _ Yes it does.

_ Gundam:  _ I think Cham-P enjoys it too.

_ Gundam: _ She sleeps on my shoulder at this very moment.

_ You: _ well i’m glad she likes it 

_ Gundam: _ Did you get my present?

_ You:  _ yeah i did!! 

_ You: _ i’ve never heard of this book before but it’s very good

_ Gundam: _ Well I was at the bookstore and I saw it on the shelf

_ Gundam: _ I know you like supernatural horror

_ You: _ it’s my favorite

_ You: _ i’m really enjoying it thank you so much!!

_ Gundam: _ You’re welcome

_ You: _ hey do you want to see a movie with me tomorrow??

_ You: _ the new star wars just came out and i heard it’s super good

_ You: _ i mean the internet spoiled it for me a little but i’m still excited to see it

_ Gundam: _ I will accompany you if possible.

_ Gundam: _ It should not be a problem

_ You: _ great!!! alright text me before tomorrow morning to let me know??

_ Gundam: _ I will. I love you, Sonia.

_ You: _ i love you too, gundam  

~

_ You: _ um hey it’s naegi

_ Kyouko:  _ Hello, Naegi. 

_ You:  _ i hope this isn’t weird or anything but i got this number from the email you guys sent out last month

_ Kyouko: _ I guessed as much.

_ You: _ so um how was your christmas?

_ Kyouko:  _ It was alright.

_ Kyouko:  _ But I’m guessing you didn’t text me out of the blue purely to ask me about my vacation. What is it you need, Naegi?

_ You:  _ oh well i was just going to ask when our next rehearsals are

_ You:  _ the schedule isn’t posted on the school website yet and my mom wanted me to find out

_ Kyouko:  _ I see.

_ Kyouko:  _ Nidai hasn’t gotten back to me regarding schedule, which is why I haven’t posted it yet, but as of right now rehearsal is scheduled for every school day starting when we return to school. Does that help?

_ You:  _ yeah!! thanks kirigiri!!

_ Kyouko:  _ By the way.

_ You:  _ yeah

_ Kyouko:  _  I hope this doesn’t come off as too forward.

_ Kyouko:  _ But would you like to go to the coffee shop with me tomorrow?

_ Kyouko:  _  The one on Main Street by the library.

_ You:  _ o

_ You:  _ i mean okay!! crap

_ Kyouko:  _ Alright, then. Would around three be good?

_ You:  _ um yes! wow okay i’ll see you then

~

_ You:  _ asahina holy crap i think kirigiri just asked me out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the naegiri begins. i know some people have waited sixteen chapters for that, thank you for your patience  
> and that link mikan sends komaeda is a real video and please watch it


	18. Hinata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i call this chapter "two gay nerds play undertale"  
> hey that game is taking over my heart and the entire internet it had to make its way here eventually  
> edit: it's been pointed out to me that this chapter contains spoilers for the ending of undertale and... damn you right  
> so spoiler warning for undertale, everyone!

"How was your Christmas?" Hinata asks, laying on his bed and staring up at the ceiling. It's Friday, the day after New Year's, and the students of Hope's Peak will be returning to school next Monday.

"It was pretty nice," Chiaki says, from where she sits crosslegged on the floor. "It was just me, Chi, and Aunt Usami, but we had a good time. We unwrapped presents, and then Aunt Usami made cinnamon rolls and we played Smash Brothers by the Christmas tree."

"You went to your aunt's house for Christmas?"

Chiaki looks at him. "We live with our aunt,  Hajime."

"Oh." Hinata wonders how he hadn't known that. He should really spend time at Chiaki's house when he gets the chance. "So, what was that new game you wanted to show me?"

"You'll have to be specific. I got pretty much only games for Christmas." Chiaki scoots across the carpet to reach her backpack, which is lying by the door, and pulls it over. "And I'm excited because Aunt Usami got me a new laptop, which is really nice. So I decided to get Undertale." She produces the new laptop and an external mouse from her bag.

"I've heard of that," Hinata recalls,  sitting up. "Is that the one with the little kid and the skeletons?" He's heard some good things about it--Sonia's played it, he thinks.

"Yep," Chiaki says. "I bought and installed it, but I was saving it so we could play it during our sleepover." She offers Hinata a sleepy smile as he slides off the bed to sit beside her.

"Okay, so you play the game and I'll do the voices," he decides.  Chiaki clicks the icon, and the game opens, playing loud 8-bit music.

"So how are you and Komaeda doing?" she asks, shifting her sitting position so she can lean on Hinata. He winces slightly; he was hoping Chiaki might be too distracted by the excitement of a new game to ask.

"Shush. I gotta read the story," he reminds her.     "A long time ago, there was a war between humans and monsters..."

Chiaki raises one hand and flicks him hard on the collarbone. "You're avoiding the question."

"Fine!" Hinata sighs. "We're doing fine."

Chiaki maneuvers her character around a patch of yellow flowers. "I know you're not. I was over at Komaeda's house with Mikan the other day. He seemed pretty upset when we brought you up."

"I...don't know why that could be," admits Hinata. "Look, a flower with a face! That's weird. Let's talk to it."

Chiaki sighs. "You win this round, I suppose."

~

Later, she brings it up again, while she tries to solve a puzzle by sliding across ice. "You should really ask Komaeda out, you know."

"You know I can't do that."

"Yes, you can, Hinata," Chiaki assures him. "I know you're probably hoping he'll do it for you, but he won't."

"Yeah, because he doesn't like me!" Hinata argues.

"Yes, he does. He talks about you all the time."

That's news.

"Oh, it's Papyrus!" Chiaki points out. "Do the Skeletor voice."

"No, wait, what does Komaeda say about me?"

"Later. Do the Skeletor voice."

Hinata sighs.

~

After the boss fight with Papyrus, Chiaki announces that she's hungry, and the agreement is made to take a snack break. Both teens relocate to Hinata's kitchen, where leftover turkey is produced.

"I just thought of another reason for you to date Komaeda," says Chiaki. Without waiting for Hinata's reply, she continues, "Because then you could double date with me and Mikan."

Hinata sighs. "I'll think about it. I just don't know."

Chiaki's nose wrinkles. "You're so angsty."

"Maybe I am." Hinata flops onto the countertop, pressing his nose against the cold surface.

"Okay, that's it. Either you tell Komaeda yourself, or I go to Ibuki."

Panic rushes through Hinata. "Okay! _Okay!_ I'll do it!"

Chiaki smiles brightly. "Good. Finally. Now let's go find out who Undyne is."

~

Three hours later, both of them are screaming.

"We have to kill that fucking flower!" Hinata yells.

"Oh my _god!_ Oh, _Jesus!"_ Chiaki shrieks. "The game crashed! Was that supposed to happen?"

"Who cares? Open the game so we can avenge our father!"

"Okay, it's open...oh, god, it's glitching out." Chiaki grips a fistful of blanket so hard Hinata sees her knuckles turning white.

They navigate in silence for a few minutes, Hinata just as engrossed in the game as Chiaki is despite himself.

"Oh, okay, the flower is a giant shadow monster," Hinata mutters as dramatic music plays. "And-"

The lights come up on the monster and both teens start screaming.

Vines rain from the top of the screen. Chiaki dies in ten seconds.

After a moment, Hinata says, "This is gonna take a while, isn't it."

~

"Let's talk," says Chiaki after a few minutes. Her fingers are flying over the keyboard.

"You sure?" Hinata says, watching the action.

"Yep. Helps me concentrate." Chiaki is hunched over, staring at the screen, but nods briefly to punctuate her reply.

Hinata leans back on his hands. "Oookay. What about?"

"Mm. Komaeda."

"Really? Seriously, Chiaki? It's like you're the one with the crush."

Chiaki puffs out her cheeks in annoyance. "Either start talking or come fight Omega Flowey yourself."

"Fine!" Hinata sighs. "What do you want me to say?"

"Hmmm. How do you feel about him?"

"Wh-isn't it obvious? I like him!"

"No, no." Chiaki avoids a swarm of bullets onscreen. "I mean, how do you _feel_ about him?"

Like Hinata knows what the fuck that means.

"I know what I'm talking about, Hinata," says Chiaki, like she's reading his mind or some shit. "I'm already in a relationship, remember?"

"Why don't you go first, then?" Hinata says. "O great and mighty wisewoman."

"Fine," sighs Chiaki, leaning back as her character dies again.

"Okay. Mikan has a really sweet smile, and beautiful eyes. She's always willing to listen when someone has a problem, and she does her best to comfort them, even though she has a hard time comforting herself. She's been working really hard in school, because she wants to become a nurse or maybe even a doctor. Even though she's been so busy lately, she always tries to find time to spend with me. She's kind and smart and loyal to her friends. Not to mention, she's a really good kisser."

"Look, that was really cute and all, but holy _shit_ you're beating the shit out of that flower, and I am not writing an essay on why I like Komaeda."

Both teens jump as the monster onscreen starts dying in a storm of flashing lights and mechanical howls.

"Okay, fine. I think the game is over," Chiaki sighs, not without a considerable amount of relief. "So we finish, and then you go."

"This was a wild ride of a game," Hinata reflects. "I came in here to have a good time, not to be heartbroken because of a flower. What is this game? Who made this?"

Chiaki taps away for a few more minutes. Hinata leans over her shoulder and watches the flower onscreen.

"I think we're supposed to go back and play it again," Chiaki notes after a few minutes.

_"What?"_

"We have to do a pacifist run of the game before we can get the real ending."

"Fuck." Hinata flops onto his back and stares up at the window. He suddenly realizes it's pitch black out. "Wait, what time is it?"

Chiaki checks the laptop screen. "Ten thirty."

"Ugh. Let's just save the next run for tomorrow. I know you could stay up playing till the sun rises, Miss Video Game Queen, but _I-"_ a yawn rises in Hinata's chest and cuts him off "-need sleep." He hauls himself onto the bed. "You got any pajamas?"

"Nope."

"Wanna just sleep like this?"

"Not until after you take your turn."

"What?"

"Telling me about how you feel, remember?"

Hinata slaps a palm to his forehead. "Chiaki, really?"

Chiaki leans over to her backpack and pulls out her sleeping bag, unrolling it quickly and efficiently. "It's only fair. I already went. And you know, it can help relationships. Or in this case potential relationships."

"So what are you, my therapist?" Hinata leans over to shut off the light once Chiaki is finished.

In the darkness, he can't see her face, but from her tone of voice he imagines her with her puffy-cheeked angry expression. "Hajime Hinata, I didn't come over here to be disrespected. You've been dancing around the question all night. Now talk."

Hinata rolls over, flopping onto his back. "Fine."

There's silence for a minute.

"Hinata?"

"Shush! I'm thinking!"

"I'm sorry if it's gotten annoying. I might have gotten carried away. But I just want to help, Hinata. Just try it. Please?"

It's not like there aren't a lot of things Hinata likes about Komaeda, but when it comes down to it, he can't think of what to say. Finally he draws in a deep breath.

"Um, okay. I mean, Komaeda's attractive, obviously. I guess that's what a lot of high schoolers notice first, right? He's also pretty nice. And...when he smiles, my stomach flips. He's kind of weird, I mean sometimes he says or does uncomfortable things, but I don't know if he really knows it. Because he's a nice person when it comes down to it. He's a really good actor, too.

"And..um, well, this is gonna sound really stupid, but you know that scene in the show where Robert Martin is getting ready for the wedding in his room and Komaeda's character starts fawning over him? Sometimes I wish he would talk about me like that. I mean for real." It's a good thing Hinata turned the lights off, because he is absolutely beet red right now.

Chiaki is quiet for a few minutes. Just as Hinata's beginning to fall asleep, she speaks up. "Hey, Hinata?"

"Mm. Yeah?"

"That was really nice. I liked it."

"Thanks."

Chiaki seems to sense that he's already a little out of his comfort zone. "Good night."

Hinata thinks back on his evening and decides that on the whole, he's very grateful that Chiaki's here. He hasn't had close friends for a long time, and he now has Komaeda and Mikan and the others, but nobody gets him like Chiaki. He wonders if she feels the same way about him.

Chiaki snores softly from the floor. Hinata turns over and goes to sleep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is what i imagine hinata and chiaki's reaction to omega flowey was like: https://youtu.be/ZZmwSf0Rufc?t=2426  
> next time on for your entertainment: the naegiri date  
> stay tuned, lovelies


	19. Naegi, Feat. Fukawa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it was a holiday so i officially had no excuse not to finish this, enjoy

Naegi pushes open the door to the coffee shop, a ball of nerves settling itself in the pit of his stomach as he scans the room.

He doesn't remember having been here before. It's a small store; the wall facing the street is mostly floor-to ceiling windows, with a few red couches and coffee tables scattered around. To Naegi's left is the counter, and most of the wall behind it is covered by a chalkboard on which someone has carefully spent long amounts of time writing the names of different tea flavors and coffees in neat, colorful chalk lettering. 

More importantly, Kirigiri is nowhere to be seen.

Naegi sees a clock behind the counter. It's only two forty five, so Kirigiri probably won't be here for a while.

Just then, a crash sounds from behind the counter somewhere. Naegi edges over and peers over the counter; nothing to be seen. He looks up and around, but the other two or three people in the coffee shop don't seem to be paying the noise any attention. 

Another crash and a muffled curse word are heard, and then someone opens a door Naegi hadn't noticed, which must lead to the break room. He recognizes the person immediately-those huge dreadlocks would be visible from a mile away. 

Yasuhiro Hagakure closes the door behind him, muttering to himself, and looks around before he spots Naegi standing near the counter. His face lights up instantly, and Naegi is suddenly struck with the feeling of a deer caught in headlights. He lifts one hand and kind of waves.

"Yo! Naegi, is that you?" Hagakure says, in a voice that's just a little too loud for the indoors. "What'cha doing here?"

Naegi moves right up to the counter, in the hopes that Hagakure might stop talking so loudly. "Hey! Yeah!" he says. "I, uh, didn't know you worked here."

"Oh, yeah!" Hagakure says, placing his hands on his hips proudly. "Going on my second year!"

"No, I just didn't know you...you know, had a job."

"Huh? Hey, what's that supposed to mean? I'm almost twenty, you know!"

"...Right. Sorry." Naegi suddenly wishes he were anywhere but here. "So, uh, I guess you must see Kirigiri in here a lot?"

"Sure do," Hagakure says. "She's a regular. Most days when we don't have rehearsal, she's here. Just brings her laptop and gets tea and sits there typing for hours. You'd think they don't have internet at her house or something!"

Then he stops and rubs his chin in thought for a moment. "Why do you ask, anyway? You here with her or something?" 

"Well, actually, yeah," Naegi has to admit.

Hagakure's eyebrows shoot up and get lost somewhere in his tangle of hair. "What, really? No way, man! Good for you!"

He lifts his hand for a high five, and Naegi feels obligated to high five him back.

"She's supposed to meet me at three," he explains. "I'm waiting for her to get here."

"Cool, man," Hagakure says with a thumbs up. "So, you want tea or coffee or what?" 

He leans one elbow on the counter and thumbs over his shoulder at the chalkboard.

Naegi stares up at the seemingly endless list of different teas and mochas and feels very intimidated. 

"...Do you just have...like...hot chocolate? "

"Sure, man," says Hagakure, without a trace of a mocking tone in his voice. "Whatever floats your boat. That'll be two dollars."

He turns around and busies himself with the machines behind the counter. Naegi places his two bucks on the counter, looks around the room and decides to sit in a couch by the glass wall facing the street. 

The cafe is located inside a bookstore; opposite the door, the wall is missing, with an entrance to the bookstore in its place. The entire building smells faintly of chocolate mixed with coffee, which is nice; inside the bookstore, he recognizes a girl from his class staffing the counter; Touko Fukawa from his AP Literature class. She recognizes him and sticks out her tongue. Naegi sticks his tongue out back; Fukawa used to pretend she hated him, but ever since she became best friends with his sister, they’ve graduated to somewhat friends.

Someone touches Naegi’s shoulder and he jumps violently.

It’s Kirigiri, standing over him with a faintly amused expression.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” she apologizes.

Naegi feels his cheeks warm. “It’s nothing,” he says quickly. “It’s uh, good to see you! You...you look good.”

She does look good; Kirigiri prefers to dress in purple, and today is no exception; when she takes off her coat to put it on the wall hanger, she’s wearing a violet long-sleeved dress that looks incredibly good on her. Or maybe it’s just Naegi, who probably would have said she looked good if she was wearing a paper bag.

“Thank you. So do you.”

Naegi’s wearing the same hoodie he wears almost every day. At that very moment, he notices what looks like a ketchup stain on the wrist. So much for impressing Kirigiri with his fashion sense.

Kirigiri sits down next to him. “How was your Christmas?”

Naegi slides over to give her more room. “Oh! Uh, it was pretty good! It’s Komaru’s favorite holiday, so our house was full of decorations and stuff all month.”

They make small talk, comparing the gifts they got for Christmas, until Hagakure interrupts the conversation.

“Yo, Naegi!” he says, leaning over the back of the couch. “Got your hot chocolate here.”

“Thanks,” Naegi says, and Hagakure reaches between them to set the steaming mug on the coffee table.  

“What’ll you have, Kirigiri?” he asks.

“The regular, please,” she replies. “A medium-sized mocha.”

“Got it!” Hagakure gives her double finger guns and disappears back behind the counter.

“I didn’t know he worked here,” says Naegi.

“He does. A lot of our classmates have jobs in Main Street shops,” says Kirigiri. “I spend most of my time downtown, so I see them from time to time."

She leans back on the couch, crosses her legs, and counts on her fingers. “I believe Celestia also works at this coffeeshop. Asahina works at the bakery across the street with Teruteru Hanamura, from the other class. Byakuya- the one from the other class, not ours- has a job at the fast-food restaurant near here, and Tanaka works at the pet store.”

“Do you have a pet?” Naegi asks her. 

Kirigiri smiles, a rare occurrence. Naegi’s stomach flutters a little.

“Yes, actually, I do. We have three cats. What about you?”

Naegi shakes his head. “Not me. Komaru has a hamster, though.”

Kirigiri looks up at the clock. “It’s been five minutes. Excuse me, Hagakure should just be getting done with my coffee about now.” She rises from the couch and walks off to the counter, leaving Naegi by himself for a few minutes. 

“What are you doing?” hisses someone right in his ear, and he jumps violently for the second time that day.

This time, it’s Fukawa, leaning over the back of the couch and glaring at him furiously.

“What are  _ you  _ doing?” splutters Naegi, feeling his heart slowly return to beating at normal speed.

“Making sure your date doesn’t go down the drain!” she whispers. “I can hear you from behind the register. Why are you being so utterly  _ boring?”  _

Naegi blinks, stunned. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s been fifteen minutes and you’re still making small talk!” Fukawa says. “Kirigiri hates small talk. Everyone hates small talk. You’re friends, aren’t you? Why are you so awkward?”

Naegi glares at his friend. “I’m nervous, you know? I’ve...never been on a date before, and I really like Kirigiri!”

"Yeah, well," sniffs Fukawa, "if you bore her out of her skull she won't ask you out again. You should talk to her about something she's interested in."

Naegi's about to reply, but Fukawa suddenly turns and bolts into the bookstore. When he turns around he sees the reason; Kirigiri is making her way back to their seat with a steaming mug in her gloved hands.

"Was that Fukawa?" she asks when she sits down.

Naegi's too embarrassed to tell her Fukawa thought he was being boring. "She...wanted to know if we had homework in pre-calculus."

At that exact second, a phone rings.

For a second, Naegi can't figure out whose it is. His phone is set perpetually on vibrate mode, so he doesn't register that the ringing is coming from him. But then he realizes what song is playing, and suddenly he's flashing back to last month, when he got a new phone and made the mistake of letting Komaru choose a setting.

_ "Hey, Makoto! What are you gonna put your ringtone as?" _

_ "I wasn't really planning on setting the ringtone. I keep my phone on vibrate." _

_ "Oh? Well, then can I set it?" _

_ "Sure, if you want. Set it to whatever you like." _

He should have known, considering Komaru's penchant for cartoons and her tendency to embarrass her brother. It's just his luck; he must have sat on his phone in such a way that the volume was turned up by accident. 

_ Bow-chicka-bow-wow, that's what my baby says!  _  blares from Naegi's pocket.

Kirigiri merely looks at him, one eyebrow raised. The corner of her mouth quirks ever-so-slightly. 

Naegi panics. Internally cursing Komaru, he tries to get his phone out as quickly as possible, which of course means it takes an eternity because he drops it five times.

_ Gitchee gitchee goo means that I love you!  _

Naegj swipes across the screen, answering the call, and there is finally silence. He shoots an apologetic glance at Kirigiri and turns away, whispering into the receiver. "Hello?"

"Hey, Makoto!" Of course, it's Komaru calling. 

"...Hi, Komaru. What's going on? House on fire?"

"Very funny," his sister complains. "I'm fourteen, not five! I can be home alone without burning down the house!”

After the phone embarrassment, Naegi isn’t feeling particularly charitable. “Uh huh. So you’re telling me you  _ didn’t _ try to boil ramen noodles and  _ didn’t _ set off the smoke alarm again?”

“...I did, but shut up! The house is safe and that’s what counts!”

“Okay, so the house is fine. Why’d you call, then?”

“Why do you think?” Komaru chirps. “I want to know how your date is going, silly!”

If Kirigiri wasn’t still right next to him, Naegi would facepalm. That, and facepalms can’t be heard over the phone.

“How did you find out about that, Komaru?”

“Fukawa told me!”

“Damn her. Uh, I guess it’s going all right?”

“You should have told me you scored a date with the cute stage manager!” Komaru tells him. “As your little sister, I feel entitled to know when you start dating a hot girl. Promise you’ll bring her home sometime? I want to meet her! Actually, scratch that. Promise me you won’t scare her off by boring her out of her skull.”

“Great, now you’re starting to sound like Fukawa. I can’t really talk right now, Komaru, I’m kind of in the  _ middle _ of something here?”

“Oh! Oh!” his sister gasps. “I didn’t- you’re just letting her  _ sit  _ there? Makoto, you’re so  _ rude,  _ I can’t believe you!”

“Hey, you called me!”

“Whatever, see you later, bro!”

Before Naegi can reply, Komaru hangs up on him.

“Your sister, I assume?” Kirigiri says, looking surprisingly unbothered. 

“Uh, yeah,” Naegi says, blushing. “Sorry about that being so loud- I mean, I let her pick the song, and it was supposed to be on vibrate, I don’t-”

“It’s all right,” says Kirigiri. She turns to him, and, surprisingly, smiles warmly. “My little cousins love that show.”

“Oh- Oh, really? Komaru’s crazy about it.”

“Yes,” Kirigiri says. She faces forward and looks out the front window of the cafe. “That’s what they like to watch whenever I babysit. Recently we watched the Star Wars crossover.”

“Oh.” Naegi suddenly feels a little better. “You know, I kind of...like the show too.”

Kirigiri suddenly looks serious. “Well, that’s just weird.”

Naegi deflates. “Oh.”

Kirigiri punches him just a little too hard in the shoulder. “I was kidding, you know. It’s a good show.”

Naegi rubs his shoulder, his mouth open, and when he turns back to Kirigiri he notices that despite her calm, collected manner, her cheeks are a little pink. He smiles back at her, spirits raising again.

“So how’s the set going?” he asks, as they both reach for their temporarily-forgotten drinks. His hot chocolate has cooled slightly, but thankfully is still warm.

“Oh, do not get me started,” sighs Kirigiri, setting down her cup with a  _ plunk. _

“...That bad?”

“It’s all right,” Kirigiri amends. “But set building is hell. For one, I know I sent out an email telling everyone to help set build, but every time it’s just me, Nidai, Mukuro, Mondo, and sometimes Ishimaru.”

Naegi stares silently into his mug, knowing he never shows up to set build and feeling the guilt.

“And at least Ishimaru shows up to help without it being his job, but he’s really more of a hindrance. He is  _ not _ good with a screw gun, and every time he comes to set, I catch him making out with Mondo behind the flats. Every. Single. Time,” vents Kirigiri. “Like, I get that you’re horny teenagers, but the show is in two months and we have exactly five people on our set with varying degrees of experience. I do  _ not _ have the patience for this.”

She glares into her cup, then slumps back into her seat with a sigh. “Sorry, I went off a little there, didn’t I?”

“A little,” admits Naegi, and puts one hand on her shoulder in what he hopes is a reassuring move. She smiles at him and his stomach flips again.

“I could help you with set if you want,” he offers. 

Kirigiri’s eyes light up a little. “Oh, could you? Honestly, even one extra person is a help. Especially if you could get Komaru to come too.”

Naegi laughs. “Honestly? I think she would come if I told her you were in charge. She thinks you’re...uh, that you’re cute.”

Another sentence pops into his head, and he briefly debates on whether he has the courage to say it.

After a moment he does, his cheeks flushing heavily. “She’s not wrong.”

Kirigiri stares at him a second.

After a slight pause, she lifts her mug, downs the last few drops, and turns it toward Naegi. “Oh, look. My drink is empty.”

“Same here,” Naegi says, nodding to his empty cup on the table.

“We had better go put them in the dish tub,” Kirigiri says, picking up his cup and standing. Naegi finds himself getting up too, following her across the cafe as she makes her way to a plastic tub next to the door. She drops their white mugs in, then turns right around, almost bumping into Naegi as she makes her way back to where they were sitting. Instead of sitting down, she plucks her coat off the wall and drapes it over her arm, turning to face Naegi. 

“I saw a book in the bookstore earlier I was interested in,” she says suddenly. “Care to help me find it?”

Naegi isn’t sure where this is going, but he reaches for his own coat. “Sure.”

Kirigiri walks into the bookstore, raising a hand to wave to Fukawa as they pass. After Kirigiri turns away, Fukawa winks at Naegi and rests her elbow on the counter. 

Kirigiri walks through the store, looking at various shelves. Naegi tries his best to keep up next to her, and after a second she reaches for his hand. Just that simple action is enough to make his heart start pounding, and he lets her hold it while they walk.

“So what genre was the book you saw?” he asks, trying his best to sound nonchalant.

“Oh, I don’t know,” hums Kirigiri. “Maybe it was this way.”

She leads him through a maze of shelves. After a bit, she nods decisively and makes one last right, ending in a dead end. They’re walled in by shelves, with the only exit being the way they came, and the shelves are just a few inches taller than they are.

Naegi glances up to the label on top of a shelf. It reads  _ Self-Help. _

“I...didn’t know you read self help books,” he says.

Kirigiri spins around to face him. “I don’t.”

Naegi backs up into a shelf. Kirigiri has a weird look on her face.

“There’s no book, is there?” he asks, his voice cracking embarrassingly.

Kirigiri pauses and shrugs. “No, there isn’t. I apologize for lying.”

She takes a step closer. Everything’s clicking together in Naegi’s head, and he flushes even redder than he already was. 

“I...I guess I can forgive you,” he squeaks, and Kirigiri smiles again and moves closer. 

Naegi reaches for her hand, and she takes that as her invitation, coming in all at once. Naegi’s world melts away into a blur of purple and mocha and blueberry-scented perfume.

~

Fukawa stands teetering on a barstool behind the bookstore counter. One hand is out, bracing herself against the wall, while the other comes up to shade her eyes as she squints across the bookstore.

“Can you see them yet?” calls Hagakure from the coffeeshop. “Hurry up, man, I want my stool back!”

“Shut your mouth!” snaps Fukawa, catching her balance after a particularly dangerous wobble. “I can’t see anything with you going on like that!”

“You know, if anyone sees you like that, you’ll be in big trouble,” Hagakure warns her.

“You think I don’t know that?” Fukawa hisses, before something catches her eye. “Wait, I think I see something!”

She stretches up on tiptoe to see better. Sure enough, it’s Kirigiri. all the way oer in the self help section. Closer inspection reveals that she has Naegi pinned against one of the bookshelves, and-

“Whoa.” Fukawa’s mouth suddenly goes dry. “They’re definitely making out.”

“Really?” Hagakure gasps. “Man, I wish I had another stool!”

At that moment, Fukawa’s stool betrays her and she goes crashing to the floor with a loud yelp.

“Holy shit, are you okay?” Hagakure cries, running over to her, only to grab his stool from the floor and cradle it to his chest.

“I’m so glad you aren’t broken,” he murmurs, carrying it back to its proper place behind the coffeeshop counter. “Oh, right. Fukawa, you good?”

Fukawa ignores him. She’s too busy texting Komaru-  _ SUCCESS!!!!  _ with three celebration emojis to make her point.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have only this to say: ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	20. Hinata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS GODDAMN CHAPTER WAS TAKING SO LONG TO WRITE I HAD TO SPLIT IT IN TWO  
> the second half should be coming very soon, enjoy!

Hinata’s already feeling exhausted from the first day of classes by the time he gets to the auditorium lobby. The auditorium itself is already starting to feel a bit like home; it’s just a little bit more welcoming after the long winter break, and familiar faces are everywhere.

The door swings open again behind him, and Komaeda and Mikan enter, almost bumping into him on their way by. Komaeda stops long enough to smile and wave before Mikan grabs his wrist and pulls him down towards the stage. 

Chiaki is sitting at her usual spot by the sound board. She’s got showtunes playing as usual on her computer, and appears to be zoning out, staring straight off into space. She doesn’t even notice Hinata until he sits down next to her, at which point she looks around slowly.

“Oh, hey, Hinata,” she murmurs, offering him a small smile.

“Hey, Chiaki,” he answers, and just then the current song playing (Wicked, maybe? It sounds like it) fades out. Chiaki switches her attention to her laptop and scrolls through a seemingly endless list of soundtracks, looking for something new.

“Yo!” shouts Ibuki, running up the rows towards them. “Hey, Chiaki, can you play Don’t Feed The Plants?”

“Hello, Ibuki,” Chiaki says. “Coming right up."

Ibuki whoops loudly, throws up her arms, and spins around. The first few notes of the song play, and Komaeda jumps out of his chair immediately. 

“They’re playing it!” he yelps.

Ibuki runs down to the second row and leans over to pull a laughing and protesting Asahina away from her conversation with Ishimaru. 

“We did Little Shop of Horrors last year,” murmurs Chiaki to Hinata. “Ibuki, Asahina, and Sayaka played the three narrators. I don’t think Sayaka’s here yet.”

Hinata’s never seen Little Shop. “What’s that about, again?”

Chiaki hums. “An alien plant that tricks a boy named Seymour into feeding it human flesh.”

It’s a bit sad that Hinata’s heard of stranger musicals.

“Who was Seymour?”

“Naegi,” says Chiaki. “And Sonia played Audrey, the love interest. It was her first year. Nidai was the plant.”

Onstage, Asahina and Ibuki are singing. Komaeda fills the third spot left by Sayaka, the three of them laughing as Ibuki and Asahina try to remember the lyrics and Komaeda tries to imitate them in falsetto.

"This is the big finale," Chiaki tells Hinata. 

“Sounds like it was a lot of fun,” Hinata says quietly as he watches. It’s a bit ridiculous seeing as he still lived in a different state last year, but he feels a little jealous watching everyone else. Even the people like Tanaka and Ishimaru, who didn’t try out for a musical until this year, probably at least saw the show or helped out with tech. Everyone in the auditorium is joining in now, shouting out the words to the chorus.

_ "They may offer you fortune and fame!"  _ shouts Ibuki, leading them.  _ “Love and money and instant acclaim!”  _

“The animatronic we had for Audrey II was wild,” recalls Chiaki. “It took up almost half the stage by the end of the play. See, it starts off tiny, just a little puppet Naegi puts over his hand, but then as he feeds it more, it grows and grows until it’s big enough to kill people itself.”

“Why does he keep feeding it?”

“He’s a bit of an idiot.”

“Ah.”

Someone taps Hinata’s shoulder and he twists around in his chair. It’s Mukuro Ikusaba, holding a pair of red rollerskates. They look incredibly old-fashioned, and it suddenly strikes Hinata that she’s probably about to make him put them on.

Mukuro sees his expression fall and smirks slightly. “I see you’ve figured it out,” she says. “Now put these on. If they don’t fit, I’ll need some time to hunt down another pair in your size.”

Hinata toes off his sneakers and reaches for the skates. The first one slides on easily, although the laces are a little short, and the second one fits as well.

“Perfect,” says Mukuro, clasping her hands together and looking relieved. “I was not looking forward to having to find more. You wouldn’t believe what I did to get my hands on this one pair.”

She gestures down to the stage. “Now, I’m guessing you don’t skate much, so we’ll need to start you practicing onstage. Down you go.”

Hinata stands up, and that’s when both of them realize their mistake.

Almost immediately, Hinata’s feet shoot out from under him and he almost cracks his head on the side of the sound board. He’s saved only by Mukuro’s lightning reflexes; she catches him in something like a French dip. Over his shoulder, Hinata can hear Chiaki giggling. 

He laughs weakly as he stares up at Mukuro. “Maybe I should have put these on once I got down the stairs?”

Mukuro’s mouth twists into a small smile. “Yes. maybe that would have been the smarter way to go.

“However…” she slips her arms out from around Hinata, letting him land on the floor, “I’m needed elsewhere. I don’t have the time to help you all the way down to the stage. Maybe someone else...”

She straightens up and looks around, evidently scanning the stage.

“Komaeda!” she shouts. “We need you up here!”

HInata scowls at Mukuro while she has her back turned. He’s convinced she’s doing this on purpose. Behind him, Chiaki laughs harder.

A few moments later, Komaeda appears at the top of the stairs. Hinata just stays on his back, staring up at the annoyingly bright house lights.

He hears Mukuro and Komaeda talking, not really paying attention to what they’re saying. A second later, Komaeda leans into view. His head blocks out the glare from the house lights, and Hinata blinks.

“I can’t believe you’ve never rollerskated!” Komaeda says, grinning. 

“You should’ve seen him,” replies Chiaki. “He fell just like something out of a cartoon, and Mukuro dipped him. And then she dropped him on the floor!”

Komaeda laughs at that, and then extends his hand for Hinata to take. “Here, I’ll help you get down to the stage.”

Hinata sighs and grabs his hand. With a surprising amount of strength for his skinny frame, Komaeda yanks Hinata to his feet. Hinata immediately has to grab on to the table's edge to steady himself, as his traitorous feet threaten to slide out from under him again.

"Hm," says Komaeda, studying him for a moment. After a second, he snaps his fingers. "I guess we'll have to get you down there without your feet touching the ground!"

Hinata is positive that won't be necessary. "Wait, what are you-" 

He doesn't get any farther before Komaeda bends down and swings one arm under his knees, slinging the other around his shoulders at the same time. Hinata finds himself being swept off his feet (literally) with a very undignified yelp.

His cheeks burn red. He opens his mouth to tell Komaeda to put him the fuck down, but can’t find the words. It’s hard to tell if he’s embarrassed, flustered, or just really annoyed, but a wave of  _ something _ washes over him, keeping his mouth shut.

Komaeda starts walking, like carrying Hinata is no harder than moving a box.

As soon as he takes the first loud step down the auditorium stairs, a few people turn to see what’s going on. A loud wolf whistle is heard, suspiciously from Ibuki’s general direction.

“Here comes the bride!” sings Fuyuhiko, leaning over the back of his chair.

Hinata has never felt the genuine urge to kill, but he does at this very moment. Komaeda, for his part, doesn’t look embarrassed in the least. 

“All dressed in white!”

They’ve only made it three steps. Hinata goes from wishing for Fuyuhiko’s death to praying for his own.

“Slipped on a ba- _ na _ -na peel-”

“Shut the fuck up,” Hinata snaps, finally. “What are you, nine?”

Fuyuhiko doesn’t even get mad; he just smirks and turns back around in his seat. A few giggles are heard as Komaeda finally reaches the bottom of the stairs and  _ finally  _ puts Hinata down. He has to grab Komaeda’s jacket sleeve to make it the last few feet to the stage.

“You got it?” asks Komaeda, leaning forward a little in concern. 

“Fuck off, I’m fine,” mutters Hinata, concentrating on making his feet stay still.

Komaeda raises his eyebrows, looking slightly hurt, and yanks his sleeve out of Hinata’s grip. He’s thrown off balance instantly and ends up on his back.

“Fine, touche,” he mumbles. “Sorry. I just hate these skates.”

“It’s okay,” says Komaeda, and helps pull him up again. “Who’s supposed to be in this scene with you?”

Hinata thinks. “Uh, it’s Robert and Janet waltzing around in the gardens together, so...Sayaka. Where is she?”

“She’s out sick today,” calls Naegi from the first row. “Want me to practice with you instead?”

“No thanks, we’ve got it,” says Komaeda, and faces Hinata again.

“Guess it’ll have to be me again, huh?” he asks. Hinata briefly wonders if he should start up a tally count of cliche romantic scenes he finds himself ending up in.

They clasp hands. It’s a bit easier to skate when he has Komaeda to lean on for support, and they slowly do figure eights around the stage in an imitation of the choreography Junko assigned. Komaeda starts talking after a bit, about video games or something and Hinata lets him. He doesn’t really remember what Komaeda is saying, but it’s nice to hear him talk.

After who knows how long, Hinata is brought to a stop by a sharp jab in his side. He turns to see Junko standing there, arms crossed.

“I hate to interrupt your little romantic moment,” she drawls, “but we need to work on Cold Feets choreography. I have your tap shoes, so meet me in the band room.”

Without waiting for his answer, she turns and sashays out of the auditorium, yelling, “Naegi, hurry the hell up!” over her shoulder.

Naegi cuts off his conversation with Asahina and scrambles out of his seat, leaving the auditorium quickly.

“Better hurry,” Komaeda tells Hinata, and slides his hands out of Hinata’s loose grip.

As Hinata processes that he really enjoyed that, and kind of misses it already, he almost falls on his skates again, reminding him to take them off.

A minute or so later, he runs for the backstage door, dreading what’s coming next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next time: the horror that is tap dancing, and later; set building adventures  
> also lmao mukuro totally did everything on purpose


	21. Hinata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this went from part 2/2 to 2/3??? what i'm saying is there's another chapter of this part coming lmao sorry

What the fuck even is tap dancing? 

Hinata’s been wearing these just-one-size-too-tight shoes for about thirty minutes. His toes feel like they might be losing circulation, and he’s almost positive his left ankle was never meant to bend that direction.

Naegi and Junko are completely comfortable, their feet moving so fast they almost look like a blur. Junko keeps up an impossibly hard-to-follow list of moves- “-shuffle, ball change, shuffle, ball change, heel click, heel, stomp, shuffle, scrape-” while Hinata kind of kicks his feet and occasionally does the correct move, usually by accident.

“I think you’re keeping your ankles a bit stiff,” Naegi had said, trying to help. So Hinata let his feet flop around a bit, almost tripped over his own left foot, and got a sore ankle for his trouble.

This number is going to be hell. Hinata and Naegi will be the only two onstage during Cold Feets (besides Komaeda), and with Naegi’s excellent tapping, everyone will see how bad Hinata is by comparison. His only hope is to practice obsessively and hope he can memorize the one routine by opening night.

Junko snaps him out of his thoughts. “Honestly, Hinata, this is  _ not _ that hard. Do you need me to go over it again?”

Without waiting, she counts off, five six seven eight, and launches into the choreography again. This time, Hinata is ready for her ( _ loose ankles, loose ankles, _ he chants in his head), and he actually manages to do a decent imitation of the correct steps.

“Hey, I think I’m getting it!” he says, and Naegi grins at him.

_ “Brava,” _ drones Junko, unimpressed. “Maybe by next week you’ll be able to join the elementary classes.”

Hinata says nothing, running through the steps again to himself. Somehow, he’s found just the right way to keep his ankles so that they cooperate. It’s immensely satisfying to hear the taps match the correct rhythm, and he thinks he might understand why so many people subject themselves to this. Although he admits it would be a lot easier without Junko teaching.

A door slams outside in the hallway, and shouts are heard. Ibuki passes by the door, dressed in a bright blue parka. 

“Looks like rehearsal's over,” mutters Junko. Without saying goodbye, she marches out of the band room.

Hinata turns to do the same, but Naegi catches his wrist. “Hey, actually, can I ask you something?”

Hinata turns back. Naegi fidgets with his sleeve a little. 

“It’s just that Kyouko put me on recruiting duty for set building, and I wanted to know if you’re going to stay back.”

He brightens up a little. “I already got Sonia, Souda, Asahina, Komaeda, and Fuyuhiko to agree to stay, but there’s a lot to do, you know, and we could really use all the help we can get!”

Hinata can’t say no to Naegi’s pleading eyes. Plus, it’s not like he had any other plans for the night, seeing as his homework is done.  _ Plus, _ Komaeda is also staying.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll stay. How late is it?”

Naegi perks up. “Great! Well, it’s about five-thirty now. You can stay for however long as you’d like, but Mondo and Kyouko sometimes stay as late as nine.”

Hinata nods and turns to leave, pushing open the band room door.

In the green room, he finds Komaeda on the couch, upside down with his knees hooked over the back. Chiaki lies next to him, fast asleep and drooling on the arm of the couch.

“Hey, Hinata!” says Komaeda, with an upside-down grin. “Did you hear the rumor?”

“What rumor?”

“Everyone says Nidai’s trying to decide what show we do next year, but he only has it narrowed down to two choices. I haven’t gotten to ask him yet, but Kirigiri says it’s probably true.”

Hinata gently moves Chiaki’s legs so that he can sit between her and Komaeda. “What two shows are they?”

Komaeda brushes hair out of his face. “I think they’re Shrek The Musical, and the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”

Yet another musical Hinata has never heard of.

“They’re both really good!” continues Komaeda. “But Shrek The Musical has a much larger cast than Spelling Bee so I think Nidai might be leaning towards that one.”

“I’ve heard that too,” says Naegi from where he’s appeared in the doorway. “I’d like to do Shrek, I think. Honestly, I’d love to do either one! I did hear from Kirigiri that Nidai wants to do Shrek because then he could bring some of the middle schoolers in to study with our drama club. You know, because the middle school doesn’t have a drama club?”

“Wow, really?” says Hinata. “That sucks.”

“They don’t have a good teacher for any of the district schools,” replies Komaeda. “That;s why Nidai directs us even though he’s a student here.”

“My sister is gonna be a freshman here next year,” Naegi says, “She knows a bunch of fifth graders that are going to the middle school next year, and she really wants us to do Shrek so they could be in it.”

“Which middle schoolers?” asks Komaeda.

Naegi shrugs. “I don’t know. She babysits for them. Nagisa, Kotoko...Jataro? I think?”

Komaeda swears loudly and the other two boys both stare at him. He swings his legs off the back of the couch so he can sit up straight. His face is pink, maybe from hanging upside down.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” he says.  _ “I _ used to babysit those kids!”

Naegi blinks. “Really? Wow, small world.”

“No kidding,” says Komaeda, slumping back against the couch. “Man, that’s gonna suck. They hate me.”

“Why?” Hinata says. 

Komaeda shrugs. “I don’t know. Junko used to babysit before me, but refused to do it anymore once she became a high schooler. I know they really loved her, so I think they were angry at me for replacing her. It...wasn’t a great time.”

There’s a brief silence, punctuated only by a soft snore from the sleeping Chiaki.

“Well, hey, Nidai’s only thinking about it,” offers Naegi. “We don’t even know if he’ll decide to do that show! Don’t lose hope so soon, okay?”

Komaeda laughs at that, for some reason. “Okay.”

Just then, Chihiro and Ishimaru come through the door at the other end of the room, from backstage. They’re holding a conversation, but stop when they see the four people already gathered by the couch.

“Oh!” says Ishimaru, and lights up. “Are you all staying to help us with set today? With this many workers, we’ll get lots done today!”

“Not all of them are staying,” says Chihiro, crossing to the couch. “My sister and I have to go home.” She shakes the sleeping Chiaki by the shoulder.

“I also got Fuyuhiko, Sonia, Asahina, and Souda to stay today,” Naegi recounts to Ishimaru.

Ishimaru positively beams. “Really? That’s-” he wiggles his fingers like he’s counting for a second “-eleven total volunteers for today! Excellent!”

“That makes me feel less guilty for not staying,” says Chihiro, hauling a yawning Chiaki to her feet. 

“Oh no, you should still be ashamed!” lectures Ishimaru, shaking a finger at her, and the three of them exit to the hallway.

“Kirigiri will probably be in the auditorium,” Naegi says. “She can tell us what we should do until Mondo arrives to lead set building, so I’ll go find her for us.” He leaves to the backstage area, through the opposite door.

Komaeda yawns. “Damn it,” he murmurs, “if I hadn’t let Naegi sweet talk me into staying, I could be almost home by now. I was really looking forward to my bed.”

Before Hinata can say anything, Komaeda puts his head on Hinata’s shoulder and closes his eyes.

“Guess you’ll have to substitute,” he murmurs faintly.

Fuck. Fuck Komaeda. He is doing this  _ on purpose. _ There is no way that isn’t what’s happening.

As it is, Hinata can’t dare move. He doesn’t know when Mondo is supposed to get here, but until that happens and he has to get up from the couch, he thinks that maybe he would be fine with just staying like this until then.

Fuck it. So he does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so uh yeah the conversation naegi, hinata, and ko have is basically plans for a sequel i'd really like to write??? i also just wanted to find a way to include the warriors of hope and komaru so yeah. right now the plan is that the drama club will do shrek the musical the year after drowsy chaperone, but nothing is set in stone. if you could, please let me know your opinions in the comments! see ya next time
> 
> p.s. these boys are getting gayer by the chapter


	22. Hinata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my god. it's been s o long. i went to my first con. i turned sixteen. i became osomatsu-san trash. so much has changed since the last chapter i feel like a completely different person now  
> enjoy this long overdue chapter, everyone! it's extra long to make up for the wait  
> in which komaeda is an asshole, kirigiri throws down a sick burn, and hinata gets a lesson in sexuality from two delinquents

“Rise and shine, sleeping beauty,” someone says, and jabs Hinata in the side with a sharp elbow.

He tries to open his eyes and is immediately blinded by the fluorescent school lighting. There’s a serious cramp in his neck, and something wet on his shoulder. His arm is numb.

Fuyuhiko’s smirking face swims into focus. “Hey, can you hear me? Kirigiri says she has a job for you, so get your ass off the couch.”

Hinata looks around blearily and gets a faceful of white hair. Komaeda’s still asleep on his shoulder, which would explain the numbness in his arm. And the wet drool spot on his shoulder. Gross.

“Komaeda,” he says, and shakes him with his other arm. “Wake up.”

Komaeda lifts his head slowly, his face all but hidden by his hair, and Hinata scrubs at the wet spot on his sleeve.

“Kirigiri needs you to get the extension cords she left on the catwalk,” Fuyuhiko reports. “Hurry up.”

“Where’s the catwalk?” says Hinata. He know’s it’s above the stage, but he’s never been up there, nor does he know how to get there.

Fuyuhiko, turning to walk away, stops and swears. “Right. You’ve never been up there. And Kirigiri gave me something else to do, so I can’t take you.”

“It’s also because you’re afraid of heights,” Komaeda murmurs, his smile barely visible under his bangs.

Fuyuhiko spins around, one finger pointing furiously, and opens his mouth, probably to cuss Komaeda out, but stops.

“Just for that, you get to take him up,” he says, and marches decisively out of the green room.

Komaeda huffs and finger-combs his hair out of his eyes. “Fine, let’s go.”

Hinata stands and follows Komaeda. They go the way Fuyuhiko went and into the backstage area, but instead of going out onto the stage, Komaeda takes a left, through the door that leads behind the stage, and another left, onto a set of stairs Hinata never really bothered to notice. It’s been there all year, but somehow he never really registered that it went somewhere.

“Fuyuhiko thinks this is the worst set building duty,” Komaeda says as they climb a flight or two of stairs, his voice bouncing off the incredibly echoey walls. “But it’s actually pretty cool up here!”

He pauses for a moment as they reach the third floor landing. “It might be a little scary if it’s your first time or you’re afraid of heights. But I promise it’s super safe! It’s been there for years and nobody’s ever gotten hurt or fallen off or anything.”

They stop in front of a door. Komaeda checks the handle; locked. He swears under his breath.

“Is there a key?” Hinata asks, leaning over his shoulder to get a look at the knob as though this will help magically unlock it.

“Yeah, but Kirigiri probably has it,” Komaeda replies. “Or Nidai, and I don’t want to track them down. Oh, wait-”

He runs his fingers up the crack between door and doorframe. After a moment, he pulls on a black string Hinata hadn’t noticed.

After a second, the doorknob turns.

“Yes!” Komaeda exclaims, and pulls it open.

“We left that there in case of emergency,” he explains, walking in. Hinata glances at the other side of the door and sees the string tied to the handle, opening it from the other side.

It’s extremely dark in the room. A bunch of shadowy objects are piled around them; Hinata can make out a few chairs and something huge covered by a sheet.

“What’s that?” he asks Komaeda, pointing. The other boy turns and squints in the sheet’s direction for a second.

“Oh, man, is that what I think it is?” he mutters excitedly, running over to the thing. The sheet slides off with a slight pull. Hinata takes an involuntary step back before he realizes what he must be looking at.

“Behold the might of Audrey II!” yells Komaeda, throwing his arms wide. The animatronic is very big, and a lot more realistic-looking than Hinata had expected.

Komaeda puts his arm into a sleeve designed to look like one of the plant’s tendrils and waves it around. “Feed me, Seymour!” he growls in a mock-Audrey voice, then holds up another vine. “Wanna try? It’s fun.”

Hinata pauses for a second, feeling a little silly, and then kneels down next to the plant to slide his arm into the sleeve.

 _“Aaaagh!”_ screams Komaeda suddenly, and Hinata damn near hits his head on a chair as he cringes.

“What? What is it?” he yells.

“I’m stuck!” Komaeda gasps.

_“What?”_

“I think it’s got me!” Komaeda says, his face pale and stricken. “Help, Hinata...it’s eating me…aaagh…” He slumps over the plant. “Run! Run, before it’s too late!”

It takes another second for Hinata to realize he’s joking, and Komaeda grins at him.

There’s a moment of silence. Komaeda wiggles his fingers around in the vine, making it flop from side to side.

“You...you _fucking asshole!”_ Hinata shouts, and socks Komaeda in the arm.

Komaeda just blinks, pulling his arm out of the sleeve, and rubs the spot with his hand. “Ow. What was that for, Hinata?”

Hinata stands, feeling his cheeks burning. “It’s…it’s nothing. You just scared me,” he mutters.

What is he supposed to say? That for one hot second, he was genuinely worried for Komaeda? That he feels stupid and childish for having fallen for the equivalent of an elementary-school prank? That it really only worked because he’d already been scared of the stupid plant puppet the whole time?

“Don’t fucking do that again,” he mutters.

Komaeda’s eyes widen as he stands up. “It was just supposed to be a joke,” he says, looking concerned. “I’m sorry if I upset you.”

Before either of them can say anything else, a shout sounds from somewhere below. Kirigiri’s voice. “Did I just hear screaming up there?”

Komaeda’s eyes widen in real fear.

“Uh, yeah,” he shouts back. “That was me!”

“Are you bleeding to death?”

“No.”

“Are you on fire?”

“No.”

“Then stop fucking horsing around up there and get to work!”

Komaeda flinches. “Yes, ma’am!” he shouts.

Hinata looks up to the ceiling and offers a quick prayer that he’s never had the misfortune of pissing Kirigiri off.

“Okay,” says Komaeda, his cheeks now dusted with embarrassed pink. “The catwalk is over here.”

He leaves the Audrey II animatronic where it is, heading past the other piles of storage stuff and over to where, to Hinata’s sudden realization, the floor completely drops away.

Hinata leans over the side, just a little, and looks down. The stage is right underneath them, and he can see the top of Sonia’s blonde head as she paints a set wall.

“There’s the ladder,” Komaeda says, and walks over to the left wall, where there is indeed a ladder, with several metal circles surrounding the place where a person would climb. Hinata guesses it’s to catch anyone who loses their grip on the ladder, before they fall all the way to the stage.

At the bottom of the ladder is a long platform stretching to the other end of the stage, made of mesh metal flooring with a railing on either side. All kinds of wires are hanging off of, over, and around the catwalk, and the racks of stage lights are all hanging to the right, upstage of the catwalk itself.

“Here we are,” says Komaeda cheerfully, and turns around to climb down the ladder.

After a second, Hinata goes to follow him. His palms are ridiculously sweaty climbing down, and he’s nervous until his foot touches the catwalk floor.

Once he gets over his initial fear, it’s actually pretty cool up there. He can see everyone down on the stage, and the catwalk almost feels like its own little world as he watches Komaeda moving around, checking wires and humming.

“Here we go!” Komaeda stands up, holding something that looks like an incredibly oversized spool of thread. It’s made of black plastic, and instead of thread, it’s holding thick orange cord.

“These are the extension cords Kirigiri wanted,” Komaeda explains.

“Hey, guys!” someone says from right below them. Hinata leans over the railing.

It’s Souda, looking cheerful, with a smudge of blue paint on his cheek. Souda was almost insufferable at first, following Hinata around and talking to him all the time. But surprisingly, over the past few weeks, Hinata’s been getting kind of used to his presence. Of course, having spent all of Christmas break without seeing him might have helped, but Hinata doesn’t actually mind seeing Souda as much as he used to.

“Hey, Souda,” he says, and waves.

Souda grins, showing off his weirdly sharp teeth. “You guys have those extension cords?”

“Yeah, Komaeda’s got them,” Hinata tells him.

“Perfect! Toss ‘em down.”

“...toss?”

“Yeah.” Souda opens his arms wide and plants his feet firmly onstage. “I totally got it!”

Hinata isn’t so sure of that, but he turns around anyway. Komaeda holds out the spool of cord for Hinata to take, and after a second Hinata drops it over the side of the catwalk.

Souda catches it, grunting slightly with the effort, and puts it down beside him. He’s stronger than he looks, Hinata thinks to himself.

Hinata and Komaeda repeat the process with the other three spools of cord, and when Souda walks off, somehow having stacked all four in his arms without dropping any, Komaeda turns to leave.

~

“There you are,” says Kirigiri, when she sees Komaeda and Hinata emerging from backstage. “Thanks for getting those.”

“You’re welcome,” says Komaeda, and smiles.

Kirigiri narrows her eyes at him. “Although it took you quite a long time. You weren’t making out up there, were you?”

Hinata chokes on his own spit.

Komaeda stares at her for a second, mouth open slightly, before smiling again. “Of course not,” he says.

Kirigiri shrugs, attention on her clipboard. “I was just asking. You wouldn’t believe the places I’ve caught Ishimaru and Mondo when _they_ were supposed to be working, the gay assholes!” She raises her voice a little on those last three words, as if to make sure she's heard.

"Suck my dick!" someone yells from backstage, which, considering Ishimaru’s personal stance on swearing, is probably Mondo.

“Why don’t you ask Ishimaru?” yells Kirigiri right back. “I hear he’s interested!”

Asahina bursts into laughter, drops her paintbrush, splattering white paint on the stage, and walks off backstage for paper towels, still laughing like a hyena.

Komaeda just shakes his head, laughing quietly, and heads over to where Asahina was working. He picks up the other paintbrush from the can and begins filling in the uncolored spots on the set wall.

Even Hinata is unable to stop himself from grinning a little. When she turns back to face him, Kirigiri is grinning too.

“If you need something else to do, I believe Mondo and Fuyuhiko should be moving flats right back there,” she says, pointing to stage right.

Hinata thanks her and walks back there, passing Sonia and Komaeda painting on his way.

He peers around the edge of the curtain to see Fuyuhiko crouching on top of a stack of flats taller than Hinata himself. Fuyuhiko has one end of a flat, which he’s handing off to Mondo. Mondo has his hair combed down into a ponytail. It looks good, but for a minute Hinata is deeply unsettled by the absence of the pompadour he’s gotten used to seeing.

“Yo, Hinata!” says Fuyuhiko, grinning.

“Kirigiri sent me back here to help you guys,” Hinata says.

“Sure,” says Mondo. “Come help me hold this thing.”

Hinata goes over and is instructed to take Fuyuhiko’s end as he hands it down. Fuyuhiko just stays on top of the stack while Hinata and Mondo move it out onstage and lean it against the back wall. They repeat this process for a bit with three or four flats.

“Hey, can I ask you a question?” Hinata asks after a little while.

Fuyuhiko glances up. “Me or him?”

“Him.”

Mondo grunts. “Sure. What is it?”

“How do you know you’re gay?”

Fuyuhiko stops for a second and glances at Hinata. Mondo just kind of stares at him.

“Whaddya mean?”

Hinata shrugs as Fuyuhiko starts handing down the next flat. “I don’t know. I just mean, like, how did you know you liked boys?”

Mondo doesn’t look too pleased with the question, looking up for a minute like he might find his answer written on the ceiling.

“I don’t know,” he says. “How’d you know you’re straight?”

He’s not getting the point.

Hinata coughs slightly. “I, uh. I don’t, exactly.”

After a second, the imaginary lightbulb goes on.

 _“Ohhh,”_ says Mondo. “You mean _you’re_ gay?”

Hinata’s cheeks flush a little. “I mean, I’m not sure! That’s why I asked!”

“Sorry,” says Fuyuhiko. “You wouldn’t believe how often straight people ask that. It gets really fucking annoying.”

“So you’re not, then? Straight, I mean.”

Fuyuhiko shrugs. “Not really sure. I’ve really only ever liked Peko, but then again, I’ve seen some hot boys in my time. I don’t really feel like putting a label on myself. But, even just being a drama kid for as long as I have, people do a lot of assuming.”

At least they’re pretty comfortable talking about it.

“If you still wanna know,” Mondo says, “I didn't have some kinda gay epiphany or anything. Actually, I thought I was straight until sophomore year.”

Fuyuhiko snickers. “Yeah, you should’ve been there. He made out with Ishimaru and still tried to no homo his way out of it.”

“Shut the fuck up, man,” Mondo says, scowling. “Different times.

“Anyway,” he continues, “if you’re looking for some kinda magical sign that you’re gay, it’s not gonna happen. It’s just something you have to decide for yourself. And even if you decide you’re gay, you might get a girlfriend two years later and realize you’re actually bi. It doesn’t really matter, you know?”

Hinata nods slowly, processing this new information. It makes sense, and actually makes him feel better.

“So who is it?” Mondo asks, as they lean their flat against the wall and head back to the stack, which is a lot shorter than it was.

Hinata’s tongue won’t work all of a sudden. He coughs and looks away awkwardly.

“It’s Komaeda,” says Fuyuhiko.

Hinata whirls around to face him, his mouth opening in a squawk of outrage.

“Oh, right,” says Mondo, and Hinata whirls around to face _him,_ ready to ask what the fuck that means.

“Spindly tall kid?” Mondo asks. “With the bedhead?”

“Yeah,” Fuyuhiko says, holding his hands out to the side of his head to demonstrate the approximate size of Komaeda’s hair.

“I can see it,” says Mondo. “Tell him.”

The words are out of Hinata’s mouth before he even has to think about it. “There’s no way I can do that!”

“Why not?” says Fuyuhiko. “It’s not that hard.

“Easy for you to say,” grumbles Hinata. “You’ve both done it already.”

“Yeah,” says Mondo. “And I’m telling you, as a person who’s done it already, it’s not as bad as you’re psyching yourself up to think it is. And it’s a hell of a lot better afterwards.”

“Also, we’re good on flats, I think,” Fuyuhiko adds in, and sits down on the edge of the stack.

He reaches out a hand to Hinata, who grabs it and pulls himself up onto the stack as well. Mondo leans against the wall.

“I’m just too scared,” Hinata sighs, kicking his feet. “Like, what if he doesn’t like boys? Chiaki says he’s definitely gay, but just because he acts stereotypical doesn’t necessarily mean anything, you know?”

“Oh, is that what you were worried about?” Fuyuhiko says, eyebrows raised. “No, he’s gay. He dated a boy for almost all of freshman year.”

That’s news. “Who?”

“Naegi.”

That... _is_ news.

“Oh.”

Fuyuhiko kicks his foot, smirking. “What, are you jealous?”

“No,” Hinata lies quickly.

“Because Naegi’s dating Kirigiri, you know.”

Well, that explains why Naegi was so dedicated to recruiting more helpers for set-building.

“I didn't know that,” Mondo says, thoughtfully. “Can’t believe she didn't tell me. Fucking unbelievable.”

Just then, as if summoned, Kirigiri pokes her head around the curtain.

“What are you doing?” she says crossly. “We need help painting those flats!”

Mondo pushes himself away from the wall. “Hey, what the fuck, man? Why didn't you tell me you started going out with Naegi?”

Kirigiri sputters and retreats. Mondo follows her, not giving up, and Hinata can hear them bickering all the way out to the green room.

Fuyuhiko claps a hand on his back before they both jump down. “For what it’s worth, I think you should go for it,” he says. “Hey, are you going to the show on Saturday?”

“What?”

“You, know, the show I’m in?”

At Hinata’s blank expression, Fuyuhiko sighs. “Didn't Komaeda tell you about his show?”

Oh. Hinata _does_ remember Komaeda telling him about it, but he’d almost forgotten over winter break. “Shit, is that this weekend?”

“Yeah,” Fuyuhiko says. “Next to Normal. Sonia, Komaeda, Asahina, and I are in it. It’s community theatre, so a couple kids from other towns are in it too.

“Is anyone else going?” Hinata asks.

“Yeah. Peko, Tanaka, Ibuki, Byakuya…” Fuyuhiko counts on his fingers. “...and Sakura. That girl from the other class, you know, Asahina’s friend? And Ishimaru, I think. Peko’s driving them down in my mom’s SUV. There’s room left if you feel like coming, even though my sister’s gonna have to fit in there too. My mom’s making us take her in return for letting us use the van.”

Hinata nods. He doesn’t have any plans for this weekend that he can remember. “I’ll ask,” he says. “I think I’m going. Komaeda asked me to.”

“Cool,” Fuyuhiko says. “Also, the van seats nine, so ask Chiaki if she wants to come too, okay?”

He looks towards the stage. “We should probably get out there before Kirigiri finds us talking and skins us alive.”

Hinata follows him back out to the stage, already thinking about next weekend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tune in next time for chapter 23. carpool shenanigans! asahina saying "fuck" onstage! dressing room makeouts! some or all of these things might happen in the next installment. until then, have a wonderful day


	23. Hinata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy birthday nagito komaeda!!  
> i couldn't not update this because come on it's his birthday. even if he doesn't appear in it yet, you still get an update! fuyuhiko's sister appears in this one, and i had to name her since sdr2 didn't. i hope my choice is suitable lmao. enjoy!  
> ((okay another preface before you enjoy your chapter. i have race/sexuality/gender headcanons for the dangan ronpa kids that i've put a lot of thought and planning into, and i ended up mentioning some of the race headcanons in this chapter. i hope there won't be any problems, if my headcanons are different than yours, or anything, but i thought it was important to mention. anyway, enjoy! ^^))  
> EDIT: hamilton?? what hamilton it's always been heathers lmfao...shush let's forget the mistakes of the past

_You:_ Are you sure you can’t come??

 _Chiaki:_ Yes

 _Chiaki:_ I’m sorry, Hinata

 _You:_ It’s okay I hope you guys have fun with your aunt!

 _Chiaki:_ Thanks :) I hope you have fun at the show

 _Chiaki:_ Say hi to Komaeda for me ;3

 _You:_...S hut the up

 _Chiaki:_ ;3

 _You:_ >:c

 _You:_ Thanks

 

Hinata puts his phone away and flops back on the bed with a sigh. After a few seconds, he pulls the phone back out and dials.

The phone is picked up after two rings. “Hello?” says Fuyuhiko, sounding irritated.

“Hey," says Hinata.

There’s a pause as Fuyuhiko presumably checks the caller ID. “Oh, hey, man. What’s up?”

“Chiaki can’t come with us tonight,” Hinata tells him.

“Damn. You sure?”

“Yeah, she and Chihiro are going out with their aunt. She says it’s family night and they just found out today.”

“Hm,” Fuyuhiko mutters. “Well, it’s a good thing you called when you did, because Mikan’s been asking if we have any seats left. She'll probably wanna come even if Chiaki stays home. I’m gonna go tell her we have an open seat, okay?”

“Sounds good,” Hinata says, and listens to the click of the line going dead.

~

At six P.M., they pull up outside Hinata's window. Someone practically lays on the horn while Hinata scrambles to grab his coat and check to make sure his wallet is in the pocket before rushing out the door. He's sure he sees at least one curtain being twitched aside by an angry neighbor, looking to see the source of the obnoxious racket, and flinches guiltily as he approaches the minivan.

The door slides open as he reaches for the handle. "Yo, Hinata!" yells someone, leaning forward with their hand on the door, who turns out to be Ibuki. "Come on!"

Hinata takes her hand and pulls himself up into the car, where he discovers it’s a lot more crowded than it looked at first glance. Ibuki slides over to let him sit. On her other side is Byakuya, whose substantial girth doesn’t allow for much room, but Hinata squeezes in, leaving room for one more person on their row.

“Hello, Hinata,” says a flustered Peko from the driver’s seat. “I apologize for the horn blowing. That was Nat.”

“Stop calling me Nat!” gripes the tawny-skinned girl in the shotgun seat, who must be the sister Fuyuhiko mentioned. She looks vaguely familiar, like Hinata’s seen her elbowing past him in the hallway with her gaggle of friends. She’s supposed to be in Mikan and Ibuki’s grade, one below him and her brother.

Her skin is lighter than her brother’s, which might be why Hinata never registered that they were siblings, but now that he knows, the resemblance is recognizable.  For whatever reason, it occurs to him that they have the same nose.

“The next person to call me anything besides Natsumi is getting kicked out of this fucking van,” Fuyuhiko’s sister says, arms crossed.

“Correction,” says Peko, looking unbothered by this. “I am the driver, and older than you. There will be no kicking people out.”

Natsumi just turns to stare sourly out the window. She doesn’t bother to say hello or ask Hinata’s name.

“H-hi, Hinata,” someone says behind him, poking him in the shoulder, and he twists around to see Mikan in the backseat. Next to her is Ishimaru, who waves when Hinata notices him, and a massive figure who after a few seconds turns out to be Sakura Oogami. She nods at him, and Hinata twists back around in his seat.

“Hey, Mikan,” he replies as the minivan starts moving. A grab for the seatbelt is quickly made as Peko shoots down the street. She’s driving a lot faster than Hinata expected of a reserved girl like her- clearly her driving and outward personality don’t match up.

“W-who’s left to pick up?” Mikan asks, raising her voice a little.

“Only Tanaka,” Peko answers, slamming on the brakes at a busy stop sign and making everyone jolt forward a little in their seats. “Then we’ll be on our way. The show is being held in the city auditorium a few towns away, so it should take us maybe half an hour to get there.”

Natsumi sighs loudly and slides down in her seat to show her displeasure. Peko ignores it.

“Are we going to be there by six-forty-five?” asks Ishimaru. “Because, if we’re any later than that, there might not be a group of seats close together for us to sit, and-”

“It’s okay,” Peko reassures him. “Fuyuhiko’s mother preordered them so he could reserve us seats together.”

Ishimaru nods, satisfied.

Ibuki leans forward to talk to Peko about something, and Ishimaru starts a conversation with Sakura in the backseat. Hinata closes his eyes as they speed down Main Street, never quite able to shake the feeling of terror that comes from riding in a fast car when your parents drive slowly.

After a second, Hinata's phone buzzes with a text from Peko saying "We're out front.", comically late. He almost loses the phone as Peko takes a hard right down a side street. Thankfully, this time they slow down properly instead of slamming on the brakes, coming to a stop in front of a tiny gray house.

Peko takes out her phone and sends a text, blocking Natsumi’s attempt to honk the horn without looking up.

A muffled scream sounds from inside the house. Hinata jumps in his seat, but nobody else really reacts besides Natsumi, who looks up for a brief moment before turning away again.

“...What was that?” Hinata says, just in case nobody heard the random screaming.

“Oh, that’s the parrots!” chirps Ibuki, bouncing in her seat.

“...the parrots.”

Just then, the front door of the house bangs open and Tanaka emerges.

Right. Of course the parrots.

Tanaka circles around to the left side of the car and pulls open the door. Hinata slides over to allow him room, and is immediately assaulted by the scent of too much hair gel as Tanaka squeezes onto the seat.

“Hey, hamsterhead!” pipes Ibuki, kicking the seat in front of her as they start moving.

“Good evening, rambunctious one,” says Tanaka, with his usual level of bravado, but gasps and slams himself back against the seat next to Hinata as Peko floors the gas pedal.

“A little carsick, are we?” Hinata deadpans to him. Tanaka tears his eyes away from the road to face him. His face is even whiter than usual.

“Not… carsick, exactly,” he gasps. “Perhaps, a little unused to the stoic one’s, ah, particular method of driving, might be the case?”

“Ugh,” mutters Natsumi to Peko, “why are your friends so fucking weird?”

Tanaka glances over at her, one penciled eyebrow raising in slight confusion, but says nothing. Sakura hums in what sounds like disapproval from the backseat, and when Hinata looks back her expression is one of distaste.

“Okay, let’s put on some music!” chirps Ibuki, either unaware of the tension or trying to dissolve it. Probably the latter. “I’m feeling like Book Of Mormon. Anybody else up for Book Of Mormon?”

“Sure, that sounds good,” says Peko, nodding as she merges onto the highway.

“I’ve never seen that,” Ishimaru says.

“I l-like it,” Mikan offers.

“You would,” mutters Natsumi.

“Well, I also happen to greatly enjoy it,” says Tanaka immediately, seemingly bristling at that particular comment. “I think you should put it on.”

“C-can you play Turn It Off?” Mikan asks. “Or Spooky Mormon Hell Dream?”

Ishimaru looks lost.

“Spooky Mormon Hell Dream coming right up!” Ibuki says happily, reaching for the cord to plug in her phone.

Hinata has heard the Book Of Mormon soundtrack maybe once, when Komaeda insisted they listen to it during lunch once. It was funny, but he doesn’t remember a lot of it.

Ibuki and Tanaka, on the other hand, have clearly memorized every lyric and note.

“Down, down, to Satan’s realm! See where you belong!” chants Ibuki, aggressively playing air guitar and almost smacking Hinata in the face with her left hand several times. Tanaka is also singing along, and Mikan’s humming the tune faintly from the backseat.

“Did Jesus just say “you’re a dick”?” Sakura observes, sounding amused.

“I wasn’t aware this musical was so obscene,” says Ishimaru faintly, almost in a whisper. Hinata suddenly wants to laugh.

“It’s pretty much rated R,” says Byakuya, paying no mind to the aggressively headbanging girl next to him.

“You’re going to scar him for life,” scoffs Peko, only half seriously.

“W-what would you expect, hanging out with this crowd?” Mikan pipes up, giggling a little. “Peko, can you p-play, um, can you play Heathers next?”

“Ooh! Ooh!” hoots Ibuki, pausing in her headbanging as one hand shoots up like she’s in a classroom, almost hitting the roof of the car. “Ibuki likes the sound of that!”

“No, no way!” protests Natsumi, twisting around in her seat. “My brother plays that enough at home, god, don’t make me listen to it again!”

“Sorry, but I’ll have to agree,” Peko adds. “Heathers is great, but Fuyuhiko plays it a bit too much.”

“Awww,” complains Ibuki.

Peko smiles to herself. “He wants to play J.D. someday, did you know that?”

“What, Fuyuhiko?” says Hinata, who did not in fact know that.

“Yeah,” says Natsumi, her tone a little softer than it’s been any other time since Hinata got in the car. “He always talks about the roles he wants to do when he gets older. I mean, it's weird to want to play J.D. and I told him it's weird, but you know. He has good songs. And it's kinda nice to see him talking about his dreams, I guess.”

“It would be a fun show, if I was an actress,” Peko murmurs, eyes fixed on the highway.

Natsumi smirks, elbow propped on the console between the seats. “Yeah, but it doesn’t stop you from belting out the words to Candy Store every time it comes on the--”

Peko gasps and elbows Natsumi in the side, cutting her off. “They don’t need to hear about that!” she insists, but in the rearview mirror Hinata can see that her cheeks have turned the color of an overripe peach.

“I heard Heathers!” Ibuki shouts. “Ibuki thinks you should put it on! She really wants to sing Blue!”

“And please,” adds Byakuya, “don’t take that as a cue to play Blue. I’ve been subjected to her innuendos quite enough today.”

“Oh, hush,” Ibuki pouts, and elbows him in one pudgy side.

Byakuya looks down at her, one eyebrow raised. “Was I supposed to feel that?” he deadpans.

“Ishimaru, I bet you would like Heathers!” Ibuki tilts her head back and tries to look at him upside down, but only succeeds in ramming her head into the seat back.

Ishimaru laughs nervously. “Isn't that show more obscene than Book of Mormon? I think you have me confused for someone else.”

“Well, if you _were_ in it, you could maybe be one of the fathers in "My Dead Gay Son,” suggests Tanaka, smirking.

Mikan giggles.

“He’s not wrong,” observes Sakura Oogami. 

Ishimaru’s brow furrows. “That sounds...like a strange song."

Mikan peers over, surprised. “Sakura, d-do you know Heathers?”

“Doesn’t everyone in this car?” Sakura replies, raising one eyebrow.

“Hinata doesn’t,” Mikan points out.

“Hinata doesn’t know most musicals,” Byakuya scoffs.

“I’m right here,” Hinata mutters, feeling slightly hurt. Well, it’s true, and not really anything bad, but somehow Byakuya can make anything he says sound like an insult.

The current song ends, unnoticed since everyone was talking over it, and Peko reaches down to her phone to mess with it for a moment before turning her gaze back to the road.

 _"Are we gonna have a problem?"_ says a voice, as the song begins.

Ibuki’s eyes light up and she shoots up so fast Hinata feels like he could get whiplash just watching it.

“Candy Store!” she cheers, going back to bouncing in her seat. “Yes, yes, yes! I wanna do Heather McNamara!”

Peko smiles. “I do like this one.”

“I m-memorized the words too,” Mikan murmurs.

 _"I like!"_ chant Mikan and Ibuki.

Peko jumps in. _"Lookin' hot, buyin' stuff they cannot!"_

_"I like!"_

_"Killer clothes!"_

_"Kickin' nerds in the nose!"_ they yell.

“I heard a boy singing that time,” Ibuki says. “Byakuya, you can’t hide from Ibuki’s supersonic ears!”

Byakuya scoffs. “So what? I’m an _actor._ I sing. Excuse me if your rabid obsession with this show has made the lyrics stick in my head.”

“You like it, you like it!” chants Ibuki, poking him in the sides and bouncing.

“Shut up.” Byakuya doesn’t argue, though.

 _“Honey, whatcha waitin' fo-or?”_ Peko sings, interrupting them to continue the song. Her voice is low, but strong, and really nice. It’s… surprising, not really what Hinata had expected.

Ibuki jumps back in immediately. _“Welcome to my candy sto-ore!”_ she sings along with Mikan, distracted once again.

Hinata leans forward to put his elbow on the back of the driver’s seat for a moment. “You know, your voice is really nice, Peko,” he tells her.

Peko looks over at him for a moment, a surprised kind of smile on her face. “Thank you, that’s, that’s very kind of you, Hinata.”

“You should really try out next year, if you can sing that well!” Actually, Hinata’s kind of wondering why she hasn’t.

“Oh, no, no,” Peko laughs. “I’m not meant for the main stage. In fact, I don’t talk too much when I’m not around the people from the drama club.”

“That’s surprising.”

“Mm-hm. Selective mutism. I didn’t even talk to anyone at all besides Fuyuhiko until middle school. I’ll bet you didn’t know that, hm?”

“Yeah, she didn’t,” says Natsumi suddenly, and Hinata jumps, having almost forgotten about her. “She talked to me second, though.”

Peko smiles. “Yes, I did, didn't I? You and I were almost as close as I was to Fuyuhiko.”

This suddenly seems like a rather personal thing to be hearing in the middle of a crowded car ride, with Ibuki and Mikan still belting out the words to Candy Store right behind them.

“I didn’t,” says Hinata. “That’s, interesting.”

“Peko, hey, Peko!” Ibuki shouts, reaching past Hinata to poke her. “Come on, sing the chorus with us!”

Byakuya and Tanaka are singing along. Even Natsumi starts singing the words under her breath, and Hinata leans back while Peko tilts back her head and yells out, _”Shut up, Heather!"_ and then starts to laugh when Ibuki can't keep a straight face. Ishimaru is still sitting rigidly in the backseat, although he looks like he’s probably enjoying himself, and next to him Sakura is smiling as she hums the tune of the song. Meanwhile, Peko, Ibuki and Mikan are going overboard in typical drama club fashion to sing the Heathers’ harmonies, which are seriously nice.

Hinata smiles and thinks to himself that maybe he’ll listen to the Heathers soundtrack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((just to recap the race headcanons mentioned in this chapter, in case anyone was confused-fuyuhiko and his sister are mixed-race (half black and half white), ibuki is half-japanese, ishimaru and peko are japanese. i was unsure about only making some characters japanese since, well, they are actually japanese characters, but i think it seems to be different in an au where they live in america?? it seems like a grey area to me, so i went with my original headcanons. i want to make sure i'm going about this correctly, especially as i'm white, so if you're bothered by that, please do leave a comment to let me know and explain why))  
> and after that extensive aside, i hope you enjoyed your chapter, even if it was one long car ride! i intended to make this entire day one chapter, but it was just getting too long and i really wanted to have a chapter up in time for komaeda's birthday.  
> so in this chapter, as promised, there were carpool shenanigans. but asahina did not say fuck onstage and there were no dressing room makeouts! however, this isn't to say those things won't happen in the next chapter...but you'll have to tune in to find out! until next time, lovelies!
> 
>  
> 
> ((Let Asahina Say Fuck))


	24. Hinata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sweats* there was only supposed to be one more chapter about this show i swear, i don't know what happened, i was supposed to fit the rest of it in one chapter but instead you have four paragraphs of cast bios i'm sorry  
> the next chapter is gonna be up soon so we can get this mini-arc out of the way. also, the one-year anniversary of this fic is in just a few days!! holy shit!!! so y eah,, enjoy

"There it is!"

Ibuki's excited cry heralds their arrival at the theater. Hinata leans past Tanaka to see out the window; they're driving down the Main Street of an unfamiliar town. This being Hinata's first year living in the area, the town they're in is totally alien to him, although the others in the car don't seem as unfamiliar with the area.

"My father and I used to drive to the restaurant in this town on Sundays," recalls Ishimaru as they stare out the window. "It's right over there, by the bank." He's pointing, and Sakura turns her head, looking at a building out of Hinata's line of sight.

"The theater's right there!" reports Ibuki, smushing Hinata between her and Tanaka as she points out a building with a marquee out front. The actual building is a little back from the road; the marquee is on an arch at the sidewalk, and a path lined with short walls leads from there to the door. That's all Hinata can see before Peko drives past it to find a parking spot.

Since the show is due to start in twenty minutes, all the parking spots on Main Street are packed, but by some stroke of luck they manage to find an empty one just about two blocks away.

Ibuki shakes Byakuya awake as Tanaka slides open the door, Mikan scrambling over the space in the backseat to get out. Hinata climbs out after her as Byakuya starts grumbling at Ibuki for waking him.

Hinata looks up at the window display of the store they’re parked in front of; a florist’s. Someone’s put a poster for the Next To Normal show in the corner, above the display of flowers on sale in the window.

“Perfect luck,” Peko says happily as she steps up onto the sidewalk. “I was hoping there would be time for me to come down here before the show, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to.”

“Are we going in?” asks Hinata.

Peko looks back at him, pausing mid-stride. “Do you want to come in?”

“We’re going up to the theater now,” says Byakuya. “Are you joining us or Peko?”

A vague idea forms in the back of Hinata’s head and he shrugs. “I guess I’ll go with Peko,” he says, and the rest of the group sets off down the sidewalk.

Peko pulls open the door, a bell jingling somewhere overhead as she does so, and holds it open for Hinata to enter behind her.

The flower shop smells faintly of something like jasmine. Although there are the standard type of store lights hanging from the ceiling. soft-colored tea lights have been lovingly strung up all around the room, shining in pinks and blues on the walls. Two shelves of flowers stand near the counter, designed to be the first thing a customer sees, and behind them, a few cases line the walls, the type of shelves designed to refrigerate flowers that sometimes appear near the checkouts of grocery stores.

A short, somewhat attractive boy with light-colored hair stands behind the counter, reading a book. Although his eyes are red like Peko’s, something about him, strangely, is reminiscent of Naegi.

Mystery Checkout Boy and Peko exchange polite employee-customer nods as she passes the counter, beading straight towards the back left of the store.

"Do you know what you're getting?" asks Hinata.

Peko stops in front of a case, one hand to her chin thoughtfully and the other on her hip.

"Yes, I believe so," she says, and reaches for a small arrangement of a half dozen roses. Red. Of course.

"Very romantic," Hinata notes, and Peko laughs.

"He likes the red ones best," she protests. "Up until last year I got him tulips or lilies, but now that we're dating..."

"No, no, I get it," Hinata laughs, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

Red is romantic, but he has a sneaking suspicion of the actual reason Fuyuhiko likes red. The roses in Peko's hands match the color of her crimson eyes.

"Maybe I'll get red flowers too," he tells her. "Although, maybe not, uh, roses..."

Peko laughs, hand to her mouth, and Hinata flushes a little.

She points past him. "Tulips are always nice. And we're in a bit of a hurry, so why don't you pick some of those out while I pay for these?"

The sentence is technically a question, but Peko’s tone offers no room for argument. Hinata finds himself hurrying over to the tulips as if she had physically pushed him.

They come in red, white, yellow, pink, and combinations thereof. Each little bouquet has a card tied to it that talks about the meaning of the colors, and after looking at each one Hinata decides on pink, which supposedly means congratulations.

As he's reaching for it he notices a small bouquet that has red and pink, and stops to reconsider.

Red tulips are romantic. There's no way Hinata's bold enough to buy just red flowers, but maybe red and pink would be fine...?

In a bold move, he grabs the red and pink bouquet, but resolves to pull out the card as soon as he's paid for it.

Peko's leaning against the counter as he approaches, casually conversing with Mystery Checkout Boy.

“Pink,” she notes thoughtfully. “Komaeda likes those.”

Hinata scowls a little and holds the flowers tighter. He doesn’t even have to tell people anymore; it’s apparently spreading like a droplet of ink on paper. At this rate, Komaeda might even know already. His cheeks are absolutely burning, and he’s positive it’s showing.

“So are you going to see the show?” says Mystery Checkout Boy, holding out his hand for the flowers. Hinata passes them to him with a silent nod.

“Oh, excuse me,” Peko says, starting. “Hinata, this is Shion, Shion, this is HInata, from school.”

“Nice to meet you,” says Shion, with a sunny smile, and Hinata is once again reminded of Naegi.

“Yeah, you too,” he says in return, and makes himself smile despite his embarrassment.

“Yes, we’re going down to the theater after this,” Peko answers.

“I went last night.” Shion scans the bouquet of flowers, tapping the screen of the register as he talks. “It was really, really good! Fuyuhiko did a great job, by the way.”

“I’ll be sure to tell him,” Peko says, smiling.

Shion hands Hinata his bouquet and Hinata wants to leave, but the other two are still apparently not ready to end the conversation, despite Peko hurrying him earlier.

“Who are you bringing the flowers for?” Shion asks him, putting his elbows on the counter and his chin in his hands.

“Uh. Komaeda,” he says, and grins kind of awkwardly.

The other boy’s eyes light up with understanding, and Hinata winces.

“I hope it goes well,” he says, and Peko comes to Hinata’s rescue.

“Oh, we’re almost out of time!” she says suddenly, looking at the clock on the wall. “We’ve got to leave if we want to find the others before the show. Come on, Hinata.”

Hinata obeys, grateful for an escape from his own embarrassment.

“Bye,” she calls.

“Have a good time!” Shion calls back, waving. “Oh, if you see Nezumi, say hi, will you? He’s playing Henry!”

“I’ll be sure to,” Peko returns as they pass through the door.

~

“You know him, then?” Hinata says a minute or two later, as they’re hurrying down the sidewalk. The gray sky is darkening at an alarming rate, and he can’t wait to get inside as soon as possible.

“Yes,” says Peko. “We see each other occasionally, when I sometimes accompany Fuyuhiko to his late-night rehearsal.”

“So you know Nezumi?”

“Yes. He’s...not quite as friendly as Shion. Fuyuhiko tried to fistfight him once last year. In the parking lot.”

“Yikes,” mutters Hinata.

Peko laughs. “Yes, they have...clashing personalities, shall we say? I had to rescue Fuyuhiko before he got himself seriously hurt. But despite that I do like Nezumi. He’s an excellent actor.”

“So, uh, I’ve looked up Next to Normal on Wikipedia once or twice, but I haven’t like, seen it or anything. What should I know?” Hinata asks.

Peko looks up briefly in thought. Hinata is reminded of that time back in November when Sonia recited the plot of Drowsy Chaperone to him, and hopes dearly that Peko is...a little more concise.

“Well, Sonia is playing the main character, Diana,” says Peko slowly. “I’m not sure how much I should tell you about the show, because of plot spoilers, but Sonia’s character has bipolar-depression, and her struggle with it is a main plot focus. Fuyuhiko’s her husband, Asahina’s her daughter, a piano prodigy who suffers from severe anxiety, and Komaeda’s her son. It’s a very small cast- I think there’s her doctor, although you wouldn’t know the boy playing him, and Henry, a stoner environmentalist-type boy from school who likes Natalie, the daughter, that’s Asahina. And a few ensemble members. That’s all you really need to know, going in.”

They’re just reaching the marquee Hinata saw from the car earlier, the lights standing out since the sun just went down. Passing through the archway, he and Peko hurry up the path towards the lit-up theater. He can see a crowd of people through the glass doors.

Peko grabs his hand tightly as she swings the door open.

Hinata looks down and is just opening his mouth to ask why, when Peko plunges into the crowd and his arm swings straight out in front of him, almost throwing him off his feet as he’s yanked forward.

Peko threads her way through the gathered people, Hinata holding onto her hand for dear life.

“Over here!” someone yells, and he sees Ibuki jumping up and down over by the wall.

“You forgot to give us the tickets,” Natsumi complains, as she comes into view, leaning against the ticket stand. “We’ve been waiting here for like ten minutes already!”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Peko says, and lets go of Hinata’s hand just as they rejoin the group. While she fishes around in her bag for the tickets, he notices a door across the room opening. The faint sound of a piano- sounds like the cast must be warming up- drifts out of whatever room it is, and Asahina runs out, followed by a tall boy with dark blue hair, pulled back. Both of them are dressed in black gym shorts, and Asahina has a brown tank top that matches her skin while the boy has on a white t-shirt. Standard under-costume dress.

Hinata tries to call out to her, but there are just too many people in the room, and Asahina and the boy look to be in a hurry. They make their way through the crowd as quickly as possible ending up in front of the vending machine by the door. The two of them look to be arguing while Asahina puts her dollar into the machine and bangs on it to try to hurry up her granola bar.

Hinata finds himself laughing, hoping nobody around him wonders why he’s seemingly laughing at nothing. Asahina strikes him as exactly the type who would run out without her costume ten minutes before curtain to get a snack.

He wonders if the blue-haired boy is Nezumi, but then Tanaka’s pulling on his elbow, saying, “The party is leaving, spiky-haired one,” and he’s forced to leave with the rest of the group before he has the chance to try to say hi to Asahina. They hurry up a flight of carpeted stairs, trying not to get crushed by the masses of people trying to get up to the theater with them.

Once they’re in the theater, Hinata looks around while Tanaka pulls him down the aisle. It’s a very large theater, larger than their school auditorium, and the walls are painted terra-cotta red. It’s so big there’s even a mezzanine above the main audience, and all the seats up there are filled. A dark blue curtain is closed in front of the stage, and he tries to imagine where Komaeda and the others might be. Maybe even in the wings already? He finds himself wishing he was in the show a little, and reminds himself this is what it’ll be like in a month when it’s time for Drowsy Chaperone.

Their seats are just a few rows back from front row, and Hinata’s relieved to see there’s two seats on the aisle included in their group. He makes sure he’s last in line while they file into the two rows; Sakura, Ishimaru, Mikan, Peko, and Natsumi in front, and Ibuki, Byakuya, Tanaka, and Hinata in the back. Peko passes something out when they’re all seated, and when Natsumi shoves it into Hinata’s hands he sees it’s a program.

He passes a few minutes studying the names of the cast and crew, as well as the names of the songs in the show. After a bit, he realizes there’s a section in the back with cast bios, and he flips through it, reading.

_Nagito Komaeda (Gabe Goodman) is excited to be back for his fifth year! He’s currently a sophomore at Hope’s Peak Academy, and enjoys reading and playing video games when he isn’t onstage. His next show is in just a month, when he will be playing the Man In Chair in Hope’s Peak Academy’s production of The Drowsy Chaperone. His favorite past roles with the company include the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Leaf Coneybear), Sweeney Todd (Tobias), and Urinetown (Little Sally). He thanks his grandmother, as well as his friends from the Drowsy Chaperone (especially Mikan, Chiaki, and Hinata!) for supporting him. Enjoy the show!_

Hinata finds himself smiling like an idiot just from being mentioned in Komaeda's bio. Stupid.

Fuyuhiko's bio is right under Komaeda's, since they're arranged alphabetically.

_Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu (Don Goodman) is returning for his sixth year in the company. Fuyuhiko is currently a sophomore at Hope's Peak Academy. When not onstage, he also enjoys biking and, occasionally, cooking. His past roles include Little Shop of Horrors (Orin Scrivello), Sweeney Todd (Anthony), and Urinetown (Officer Lockstock). Fuyuhiko thanks his parents, Nat, and Peko for supporting him, as well as the rest of his friends. Enjoy the show!_

"I'm gonna punch him in his stupid fucking face!" hisses Natsumi, in front of Hinata. "I told him not to call me Nat in his bio, I _said!"_

Hinata slides the flower bouquet carefully under his seat so he can flip to Sonia's bio.

_Sonia Nevermind (Diana Goodman) is excited for her second show with the company! Past roles she's enjoyed in her acting career include Little Shop of Horrors (Audrey), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Marcy Park), and Les Miserables (Fantine). Sonia is a sophomore at Hope's Peak Academy. She would like to thank her parents and her boyfriend, as well as the rest of her amazing friends, for their love and support. Please enjoy the show!_

Hinata turns back to the first page of bios to read Asahina's.

_Aoi Asahina (Natalie Goodman) is returning for her fourth year with the company! Asahina is currently a junior at Hope's Peak Academy. While not onstage, she loves swimming, running, and eating too many donuts. Her past roles include Sweeney Todd (Mrs. Lovett), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre), and Urinetown (Penelope Pennywise). Asahina thanks her parents, Sakura, Ishimaru, Chihiro, and Mondo for their love/friendship. Enjoy the show!_

As Hinata's reading the last line, the house lights shut off and quickly back on again, signaling that the show will soon begin. He looks up as the chatter of the crowd gets excitedly louder for a moment.

Hinata shuts the program, sliding it under his seat, and turns to his right, where Tanaka's sitting.

"So," he says, passing the remaining few minutes, "are you excited?"

Tanaka looks up, his fingers fiddling with and slowly unraveling the threads at the end of his scarf.

"I am a bit nervous, yes," he confesses.

Hinata raises his eyebrows. "Nervous? Why? Sonia's the one onstage."

Tanaka glances from side to side, as if someone might be leaning over his shoulder to hear what he'll say.

"I brought Miss Sonia a present," he says, "for after the show. I got her chocolate- she doesn't prefer flowers, for they are gone from this mortal coil too quickly for her tastes."

Because they wilt too fast.

"But- well, I made a bold move, when the chocolate shop displays for Valentine's Day caught my notice-"

Tanaka pulls a box from the inside of his long jacket and shows it to Hinata. It's heart shaped and pretty, with a black ribbon in a bow on the front.

"That's a really great present," Hinata says, impressed. "I mean, _I'd_ eat them."

Tanaka laughs a little, awkwardly. "Be that as it may, I worry that perhaps such an obviously romantic present might...embarrass her. I am not the most charming of mortals."

Hinata considers the drawn-on scar, the arm wrapped in bandages, the worn leather coat.

"I don't think there's any way she could be embarrassed by you."

Tanaka looks up again. "Do you mean what you say, spiky-haired one?" And damn if he doesn't manage to sound sincere and serious even while the words "spiky-haired one" are leaving his mouth.

"Absolutely," Hinata tells him, the only response he could have given to such a hopeful face, even if he didn't mean it. "She's head over heels for you, Tanaka. And she's going to be really happy when you give her that after the show."

Tanaka smiles, looking significantly happier. "I appreciate the kind words."

"No problem," Hinata says, and just then the lights begin to dim.

The audience quickly falls quiet. His heart begins hammering at his chest with excitement as he turns facing front and watches the curtain, now shaking slightly- a telltale sign that there are people onstage behind it.

When the theater is fully darkened, the audience waits, anticipating. Hinata knots his fingers together and doesn't take his eyes off of the curtain, until, with a slight creaking, it rises slowly. In the darkness, he can just make out a few figures posed on the stage, waiting.

All of a sudden, the stage lights go on, and the show begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next chapter will begin just as the show is ending, because there's not much fun in just writing what they did onstage...i do encourage you all to look up next to normal, though, it's an excellent show!  
> furthermore, there was a shameless cameo in this chapter by characters from another anime i enjoy! feel free to leave your guesses if you recognized where they come from lmao...see you next time, lovelies ^^


	25. Hinata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the one year anniversary of this fic is in three days!!! aaaa!! honestly thank you, guys, every one of you, whether you've been reading since the beginning or you just started  
> i don't know if i'll have another chapter up by the actual 15th, so you can consider this your celebration chapter ^^  
> also, i found a really great quality bootleg of next to normal, from an actual broadway performance, so here is the link if anyone would like it! i highly recommend watching  
> https://youtu.be/-P8cI4b-d0M  
> and now that all that is out of the way, please enjoy!

Hinata blinks as the lights come up, feeling a bit shell-shocked.

A sniffle comes from next to him. He turns his head distantly to see Tanaka wiping at his eyes.

“Shit, man,” he hears Natsumi say in front of him.

“I hadn’t- I had never seen this show until now,” says Tanaka. “Sonia wanted it to be a surprise...I don’t...think I was prepared for this.”

“I don’t think _anyone_ was prepared for this,” Hinata tells him.

Peko turns around in her seat in front of Tanaka. She's not crying, but her eyes are red. Well, redder than they normally are, Hinata thinks, which seems funny for some reason.

"Well, that was...very good," she says. "Did everyone else enjoy that?"

"My f-favorite part was wh-when Diana and Natalie had that song at the end of act two," Mikan says, rubbing her eyes and sniffling, even though she's smiling. "It was really n-nice."

“Come on, we gotta go down to the lobby and meet them!” says Natsumi, shaking Peko’s shoulder.

Peko blinks and nods. “...Right, right.”

As Hinata leans over to grab his program and the flowers from under his seat, he hears Ishimaru from the next row.

“Nobody told me this musical had so much profanity in it!” he frets. “What would my father say if he knew about this?”

Natsumi snorts. “Just don’t tell him about it, so what?”

Hinata stands upright just in time to see the stricken look on Ishimaru’s face. “But- I don’t-I’m not good at keeping secrets-”

“It’s all gonna be fine, Eyebrows!” reassures Ibuki, jumping out of her seat. “But we gotta get to the lobby, now, now, now!”

Everyone shuffled out of the rows of seats until they’re all in the aisle, at which point Ibuki takes off like a rocket.

Byakuya mutters something under his breath and runs after her, moving surprisingly quickly for his size.

~

The lobby isn’t as full as it had been before the show started, some of the people having cleared out as quickly as possible, either because they wanted to get home or because they didn’t have anyone to wait around for.

They’ve been waiting for about five minutes. Hinata knows the actors will have to get off their mike packs and such, but each minute that passes just makes him more nervous.

At around the four minute mark, Sakura started just straight up doing pushups on the floor. Now she’s got Ibuki and Mikan both sitting on her back, both laughing and holding on to each other and the latter occasionally falling off.

“You two are so immature,” Natsumi berates them, but surreptitiously looks from side to side and then takes a selfie with Sakura in the background anyway.

“That’s really not safe!” protests Ishimaru.

Ibuki just laughs at him and grabs his wrist, pulling him in. Ishimaru flails his arms before he loses his balance and falls right on top of Ibuki, who screams with laughter while Mikan loses her spot and goes tumbling to the floor again, still giggling.

“I think that’s enough for now,” deadpans Sakura, as Ishimaru struggles back to his feet and Ibuki helps Mikan up.

“Yes, it would be excellent if we didn’t get any more dirty looks than we’re already getting,” mutters Byakuya, arms folded, as Sakura brushes off her black leggings.

Before anyone says anything else, the sound of pounding footsteps come from the floor above them.

Tanaka stares up at the ceiling. “I daresay our companions will be arriving presently,” he says dramatically.

Hinata’s heart starts going even faster. His hand tightens a little around the flower stems, and he grimaces a little at how sweaty his palms are getting.

Just then, the door at the side of the lobby opens. It’s the same one Hinata saw Asahina coming out of before the show, but this time it’s Sonia that appears, wearing a cream-colored tank top and bike shorts. Asahina spills out of the door behind her. Both girls are laughing.

“Gundam!” yelps Sonia as she sees him standing across the lobby. Her boyfriend’s cheeks instantly turn tomato red as she runs toward him.

Honestly, what the fuck, Hinata thinks as she hugs Tanaka, the force almost knocking him over. It’s like one of those perfect couple reunion hugs out of movies. Being that cute should be at least punishable by fine.

Sakura hugs Asahina, lifting her off the ground a few feet as she laughs helplessly. Ishimaru runs up beside them, and they begin talking excitedly as Sakura puts her down.

Peko runs across the lobby next as Fuyuhiko comes out of the door, followed by a boy that Hinata recognizes as having played the doctor in the show.

“Hey!” yells Fuyuhiko, as his girlfriend literally sweeps him off the ground. They do a romantic couple twirl like Tanaka and Sonia did, except with Peko spinning Fuyuhiko around and with him gasping for breath as it sounds like she’s crushing the life out of him.

When Peko puts him down on the ground, Fuyuhiko stumbles around for a second, almost knocking the other boy over, before he regains his balance.

“Hey, babe,” he gasps, trying to regain his breath.

Peko laughs and holds his hand as the other boy waves and leaves to join his own friends at the other side of the lobby.

“Big brother!” yells Natsumi, running up for her own hug, which Fuyuhiko obliges.

She stands on tiptoe for a second, hugging him around the neck, then, without warning, pulls him into a headlock.

 _“I fucking told you if you called me Nat in your bio you’d regret it,”_ she hisses, and Peko has to save her boyfriend from a near successful murder attempt.

That blue-haired boy from earlier- Nezumi, right?- is the next to enter the lobby, heading straight for the exit and only stopping briefly when Peko waves to him and calls her congratulations.

"Hinata!" says Sonia, tapping his shoulder, and he turns just in time to have the life squeezed out of him.

"Thanks so much for coming," Sonia says in his ear.

"Yeah," Hinata says, or tries to say through the crushing force on his lungs.

"Did you see what Gundam brought me?" she asks, pulling back and showing him the box in her hand.

Hinata nods and glances over at Tanaka, now talking with Fuyuhiko. "Did you like them? He was really worried you wouldn't."

Sonia tilts her head, eyes wide. "Worried? Oh, he's so sweet. I hope he didn't think I might refuse to accept them...they're my favorite, you know, but I wouldn't mind if they weren't."

Hinata bites the inside of his cheek as he stares down at his flowers. "That's good. I hope it goes the same way with my present.”

Sonia blinks. "What was that?"

He holds up his flowers so she can see. "Uh. I brought these. For Komaeda."

Sonia clasps her hands to her chest. "Oh, that's so cute! I'm sure it will go well, Hinata!"

Then she points across the lobby. "In fact, there he is now!"

Hinata spins around on his heel. Sonia’s right; Komaeda’s just coming through the door now, wearing the same white t-shirt and shorts as the other three boys.

Mikan runs over to him first, shouting, “Komaeda! That was so _good,_ I cried three times-”

She hugs him, and Hinata sees them laughing and talking for a minute before Mikan points right at Hinata and says something he can’t hear.

Komaeda looks over at Hinata too, and he really wants to just melt into a puddle and disappear.

“Hinata!” says Komaeda, the two of them crossing over to Hinata and Sonia. “I’m really glad you could make it!”

Hinata clears his throat and kind of pounds on his chest with one hand to make his voice work. “Yeah! I, uh. I’m glad I did. Because it was really good.”

“Thanks!” says Komaeda, smiling.

“Can you believe our last show is over?” bursts Sonia suddenly.

Komaeda’s eyes widen. “Oh shit, you’re right,” he says. “Wait, that means we have to take all our stuff home from the dressing rooms, doesn’t it?”

“We should get started if we want to go home soon,” says Sonia. “I’m going to tell Asahina.” She turns away, leaving Komaeda, Mikan, and Hinata.

“I have so much stuff up there,” mutters Komaeda.

Mikan, apparently overcome by holding in her news, blurts out, “Hinata brought you flowers!” and both boys stare at her for a second.

“You did?” says Komaeda, turning to stare at the flowers in Hinata’s hand like he’s only just noticed them.

Hinata _really_ wants to melt into a puddle right about now.

“Yeah,” he says, and for lack of anything else to say, just holds them out in front of him awkwardly.

“Th-thanks, Hinata,” says Komaeda, taking them. He buries his nose in the flowers for a moment, then grins. “They smell great! That was really nice of you, you know.”

“It was a last-minute thing,” Hinata says, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. His cheeks are burning, but at least Komaeda’s turning pink too, so it doesn’t matter.

Mikan’s still standing next to them, watching their reactions with the intensity of a spectator at a tennis match.

“Oh, Hinata _is_ here!” says Asahina, behind him, and he turns to see her coming up to them. “Did you like the show?”

“Yeah!” Hinata says, a little grateful for the distraction. “Yeah, it was great! You did great.”

“Thank you! It was a lot of fun,” says Asahina, tilting her head in that cute way she does.

Then she spots the flowers and gasps. “Oh my gosh, Komaeda, who gave you those? They’re pretty!”

“Hinata did,” Komaeda says, showing off the tulips.

“That’s so cute!” squeals Asahina, with her hands to her cheeks, completely unaware of Hinata’s embarrassment.

“Also, Sonia says we have to go upstairs and take our stuff out of the dressing rooms,” says Komaeda, who looks a little embarrassed himself.

“Oh,” says Asahina. “Well. I’m going to talk to Sakura and Ishimaru a little more before I go up, I think.”

“I’ll come with you!” says Mikan, casting a meaningful glance at Hinata over her shoulder before she turns and follows Asahina back to the others.

“Want to come help me get my stuff?” says Komaeda.

In the dressing room.

“Sure,” says Hinata, for lack of anything better to say.

He follows Komaeda across the lobby and through the door.

He’d wondered what was on the other side of it, but it’s just a short hallway that ends with what looks like a kitchen to the right and stairs to the left.

They go up two flights before they emerge backstage. Hinata sees the stage ahead of them, realizing where in the building they must be.

“Our dressing rooms are up here,” says Komaeda, meaning a small door just to the left of the stage area. “Since it’s such a small cast, we each got our own this year! WIth a normal cast it’s usually four or five to a room, you know, and it gets super crowded.”

The room at the top of the stairs is small but comfortable-looking. A makeup counter is at one side of the room, next to a rack with costumes on it and a pink couch, and the left is where the dressing rooms are. Each door has a little card on it with the cast member’s name and role written on it.

“And here we are,” says Komaeda, opening the door to a room that looks like it’s been hit by a tornado.

It’s tiny, almost the size of a walk-in closet, with a makeup counter and mirror taking up one of the walls. There’s a folding chair too, and every surface is covered; makeup containers and bobby pins on the counter, a backpack on the floor with several binders sticking out of it, and Komaeda’s street clothes hanging over the back of the chair.

“You did all this in three days?” is the first thing that comes to mind.

“Oh, no,” says Komaeda, laughing a little. “No, I did this in a week. We’ve been rehearsing at the theater since Tuesday.”

Hinata’s not sure what to do, so he kind of leans on the counter and starts organizing the bobby pins into one pile while Komaeda shoves stuff into his backpack.

“Do you mind if I change or no?” says Komaeda, saying it like it’s a casual question.

“What? Uh. No?” says Hinata, and immediately regrets his decision, although Komaeda doesn’t appear to care either way.

He just turns toward the makeup counter and looks at somewhere that isn’t the mirror while he puts the makeup into a bag, and by the time he turns back around Komaeda already has his pants back on. Crisis averted.

“So what did you think of the show?” says Komaeda, pulling his shirt over his head to leave just a black tank top. Hinata is confused at first as to why Komaeda’s wearing a tank top, but then realizes it’s a binder and feels like an idiot for staring. He looks up at the ceiling, hoping it’ll relieve some of his embarrassment.

“Favorite part? Uh, my favorite part was. Um. I’m Alive was a really good song.”

“Oh, thanks!” Komaeda says, beaming. “That one was a lot of fun!”

“I kept thinking you were going to fall off the set,” Hinata says. “Like that you were going to lose your grip on the railing or something.”

“Yeah, it was pretty scary at first,” Komaeda says, muffled for a second as he pulls a pink sweater over his head. “But after a few times I got pretty used to it. It’s really fun up there! I’d invite you to try it, but I wouldn’t want _you_ to fall off, you know? That would be just my luck.”

He kind of laughs awkwardly, even though that image is anything but funny.

“Do you have, like, a bag for this makeup?” says Hinata, gesturing to the pile he made on the counter.

Komaeda points to a blue case on the floor. Hinata picks it up and pushes the pile into it.

Komaeda grabs his backpack, stuffing his t-shirt and shorts into it, and turns back to Hinata. “Alright!” he says, taking the makeup case. “I think I’m all good.”

He leaves the dressing room, heading over to the pink couch by the wall and dropping his backpack onto it. “Just gonna put this in,” he mutters, unzipping it.

Hinata isn’t sure what he’s supposed to do, but he walks over and sits down.

Komaeda sits down next to him while he fusses around with the backpack zipper.

“Um, what are you doing next weekend?” Hinata asks him, squeezing one hand tight in the other so he won’t stammer.

“Hm?” Komaeda looks up from his backpack. “What do you mean?”

HInata makes a vague gesture with one hand. “Like, do you have any plans? Because I was thinking maybe you could like, come over to my house or something. We could see a movie. I don’t know. The Force Awakens is still playing and I didn't get to see it yet.”

Komaeda blinks owlishly, somewhat surprised.

“Well, now that this show is over, I’ll have more free time, at least until show week for Drowsy Chaperone,” he says thoughtfully. “If you want to...to go see a movie with me, I wouldn’t mind.”

Hinata scoots a little closer on the couch. Komaeda doesn’t notice, or if he does he doesn’t move.

Hinata doesn’t know what he’s supposed to say next. He’s sixteen and he’s never dated anyone. Would this even count as an agreement to go on a date? Probably not.

Hinata’s never kissed anyone, either.

Something inside of him decides it’s probably time to remedy that problem.

He doesn’t know what he’s doing. So he just kind of leans in and shuts his eyes and ends up missing Komaeda’s mouth entirely.

Komaeda laughs a little, whether out of awkwardness or at the fact that Hinata accidentally kissed his cheek, it's not clear.

Hinata leans back quickly. His cheeks feel like they’re the temperature of goddamn molten lava or something. The color of Rudolph’s nose, probably.

Komaeda’s awkward giggle peters out into nothing and they’re both staring at each other.

After about five seconds Hinata makes the brave decision to lean in again, more slowly this time so he won’t miss. Komaeda shuts his eyes before Hinata does.

It’s weird. Different than he expected, somehow. But his lips are touching Komaeda's, and the world is still turning just like normal. And Komaeda's not shoving him or pulling back. That's a good sign, right? That's a good sign.

Hinata scoots a little closer on the couch, and Komaeda does the same, so their hips are touching.

And honestly, he's not sure what he´s supposed to do now. His whole brain feels like it's trying to shut down, but he's pretty sure his hands are supposed to go somewhere.

He's just working up the nerve to put his hand on Komaeda's hip when-

"Oh my god, what the fuck!" someone says.

Hinata's eyes shoot open and he reels back so fast he almost falls off of the couch. Komaeda's the color of a ripe raspberry, and he feels like he probably looks the same way.

Fuyuhiko stands in the doorway, just as red-faced as they are.

"You have your own dressing room!" he sputters. "Can't you do that shit in there or something? Not everyone wants to see you sucking face out here!"

While Hinata and Komaeda remain frozen on the couch, Fuyuhiko shakes his head and heads into his dressing room. After a minute or so, he comes back out again, now dressed in jeans and a blue long-sleeved shirt, with his backpack over his shoulder.

"Good for you, by the way," he adds nonchalantly over his shoulder, before heading downstairs.

Somehow that's what finally unfreezes Hinata, and he flings himself off the couch and runs down the stairs after Fuyuhiko, trying not to look back.

He is literally _the_ most embarrassed he's ever been in his whole life, and while kissing Komaeda was really, really nice, he's not sure if he can meet the other boy's eyes right now.

Either way, there's a stupid grin on his face that refuses to leave.

~

Everyone else except Peko is standing by the door when Hinata enters the lobby, and Sonia and Asahina leave to grab their things while he rejoins the group.

Mikan sidles up to him, trying to act nonchalant.

"You h-have a weird smile on your face," she informs him.

"I know."

Mikan grins at him. "Did you _do_ anything up there?¨"

HInata fidgets for a few seconds, Mikan staring at him expectantly.

"We kissed,” he confesses, finally. "On the couch."

Mikan's eyes widen to approximately the size of dinner planes and she squeals so loudly that Hinata automatically leaps to cover her mouth with his hand.

"S-sorry," she whispers loudly once he removes it, then hugs her own chest and spins around, apparently still worked up by this news.

"There she is!" says Natsumi from over by the door, pushing it open.

"Peko went to get the van," Mikan tells Hinata, as the group begins to file out the doors.

They turn to follow the group.

At the end of the walkway by the doors to the theater, Peko has the van pulled up to the entrance. Natsumi runs for the shotgun seat immediately, followed by Fuyuhiko.

"Oh, no, you don't!" he yells. "I'm older, and _my_ girlfriend is driving!"

In the end, Natsumi is unceremoniously booted from the front, and heads around to get in the backseat, sulking. Tanaka climbs in next, piling his coat on the seat next to him to save it for Sonia.

Byakuya and Ibuki sit in the same seats they were in driving up to the theater, so Hinata follows their lead and sits next to Ibuki. Mikan fills the last seat, next to him.

"Anyone that's left can get a ride back in Asahina's car with us," Sakura says from the sidewalk.

"There she is!" says Ishimaru, pointing to the doors of the theater. Hinata cranes his neck to see Sonia, Asahina, and Komaeda running out of the theater, dressed in street clothes and carrying their bags.

Sonia reaches the car first and vaults into the backseat, her momentum nearly crashing her into Mikan before she catches the handle on the car ceiling and reroutes herself onto the seat beside Tanaka.

Asahina stops on the sidewalk next to Ishimaru and Sakura. Komaeda comes up to the van, but stops as he looks for an empty seat and finds none.

"Oh! Oh," says Mikan, as soon as she realizes he intends to get in, and looks from him to Hinata once before scrambling to unbuckle her seatbelt. Hinata freezes up a little and just stares down at a wrapper he sees poking out from under the seat.

"Oh, no, that's fine!" he hears Komaeda say in his usual polite way.

"But-" stammers Mikan, sounding disappointed.

"I said it's fine. I'll ride back with Asahina, right?"

"Sure, there's one seat left!" comes Asahina's voice, and Hinata finally looks up to watch Komaeda start heading down the street with the others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> >:3c  
> see you next time lovelies


	26. Fuyuhiko

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me: *posts after three months* I'M NOT DEAD  
> might as well be dead though what with dr3 ripping out my heart and stomping on it with junko enoshima's stiletto heel  
> um?? so holy shit what can i even say abt this?? how can i explain my summer of silence  
> ...overwatch  
> that's. that's it. i'm sorry  
> also this is really short and i originally wanted to combine this and the next chapter, but yall have been waiting for three months you deserve something from me  
> the next part of this is coming soon like really fucking soon don't worry

Someone bangs into Fuyuhiko from behind, almost knocking him forward into the wall, and he spins around angrily, ready to cuss out whoever that idiot was. The person has a flannel shirt and spiky hair, and he realizes it was Hinata hurrying through the lobby.

The swear dies down in Fuyuhiko’s throat, cut off. He clears his throat and tries again.

“Hey, what-”

Hinata swings open the auditorium door and hurries through, seemingly not having noticed Fuyuhiko talking to him.

It’s not normal for Hinata to bang into someone and not apologize, or even to hit anyone at all. It’s like he didn’t even notice that he’d elbowed someone in the back in his hurry. Something weird is going on.

The next person to come into the lobby is Peko, walking normally, unlike Hinata. When she sees Fuyuhiko standing nearby, she smiles, and that cute little half-dimple appears on her right cheek. That dimple is almost enough to make Fuyuhiko feel better (despite the fact that half of him is still really pissed off about getting elbowed, and kind of wants to go find someone and yell at them).

“What are you doing in here?” she asks him, reaching down to hold his hand.

“Oh,” Fuyuhiko says, almost having forgotten about what had distracted him in the first place.  He gestures vaguely at the bulletin board on the lobby wall. “Someone cut the article on Next to Normal out of the paper.”

Peko leans in to read the article, her lips moving as she scans the words. Then her gaze turns to the pictures on the board, evidently also cut out of the paper.

“That one is the best, I think,” Fuyuhiko says, tapping the one on the bottom right. It’s from the ending of the first act. Sonia’s posed sitting on a hospital bed, dressed in a patient’s gown and with bare feet, while Fuyuhiko stands beside the bed, holding her hand. Both of their mouths are open, like the camera had gone off mid-song. He can just see half of someone’s leg over on the left; Komaeda hadn’t quite gotten into the picture.

“Yes, I like that one, too,” says Peko, straightening. “Should we go in? Rehearsal will be starting soon.”

“Yeah,” says Fuyuhiko, letting her lead him across the room. “Hey, did Hinata pass you in the hallway just now?”

“I think so.” Peko raises one eyebrow. “Why?”

“He just ran through the lobby and elbowed me in the back.”

A hint of surprise shows on Peko’s face, and her eyebrows draw together. “Why would he do that?”

Her tone sounds as though she's ready to march up to Hinata and put a sword through his back for this minor offense.

“I mean like he was in a hurry,” Fuyuhiko says automatically. “It was an accident. But it just seemed weird. He’s usually the first one into the auditorium, right? And he didn’t hear me when I yelled at him. It’s like he didn’t even notice, you know?”

“That does seem strange.” Peko seems less murderous, thank god, and doesn't say anything more on the subject as they push the auditorium door open.

Fuyuhiko scans the rows briefly. Nidai and Kirigiri are in their usual places in the front row, with Naegi sitting next to Kirigiri and reading a book. Ibuki and Byakuya are sitting against the wall down by the stage, Ibuki charging her phone while they run lines with Byakuya’s script. Sonia and Akane are doing what looks like the dance steps to Toledo Surprise on the stage. Ishimaru and Chihiro are helping Asahina do a handstand, each one holding an ankle while she walks slowly on her hands up and down the aisles. All three are giggling like little kids, Fuyuhiko notices. It’s actually kind of endearing, instead of annoying as it usually is.

Tanaka’s practicing the dance to I Am Aldolpho on the second tier of the auditorium, where there’s more space between the first and second bank of seats, with Komaeda filling in for Sonia since she’s busy practicing with Akane. Ironically, Komaeda seems better at doing the tango than Tanaka, but to his credit Tanaka’s getting a lot better at dipping his partner.

Hinata is the last person Fuyuhiko sees, sitting off to the side by himself. That’s unusual; he’s almost always either rehearsing with Sayaka or Komaeda or up at the lighting board with Chiaki. He never bangs into people without apologizing, either.

Fuyuhiko frowns and turns in that direction, wondering if he should ask what’s going on, but Peko tugs on his hand.

“I think we should sit with Ibuki and Byakuya today,” she says with a meaningful glance.

Fuyuhiko nods, thinking she’s probably right. He’s secretly relieved; as concerned as he might be about Hinata’s mood, he hates talking about emotions. It’s not something he’s good at, listening to people’s problems.

So they go down to see Ibuki and Byakuya. Ibuki’s happy to see them as usual, and Byakuya doesn’t seem to be in too bad a mood either,muttering something about Fuyuhiko being late, but not scowling at them as they sit down. Peko holds Fuyuhiko’s script where he can’t see it, while he and Byakuya run through the scene with Feldzieg and the gangsters, with Ibuki filling in to read Souda’s lines, and Fuyuhiko lets himself relax into the familiar groove of adopting his character.    

They pass fifteen minutes or so like that, until Nidai looks at the clock and decides it's time to begin rehearsal.

“Alright, everyone!” he bellows, and Sonia and Akane pause in their dancing to hurry off the stage. Nidai takes their place, clipboard in hand, and across the auditorium, everyone pauses their activity to sit and watch.

“Mahiru Koizumi should be here today,” Nidai tells them. “She went down to the town players’ building last week to rent out our costumes, and today you need to try them on so that she has time to make alterations or get a new costume for you if she has to. I want you to make sure _everyone_ that’s here tries on their costume, got it?”

Murmured assent floats down from the rest of the kids.

Nidai smirks.

“I can’t hear you guys!” he yells, hands on his hips.

“Got it!” shouts everyone in unison, humoring their director, who gives them all a grin and a thumbs up.

“Great! Now, we’re going to start by rehearsing Cold Feets, so I want Komaeda, Hinata, and Naegi up here.” Nidai pauses, considering the rest of his cast.

“Souda and Kuzuryuu, you can try on your costumes first!”

“Bye, Fuyu!” chirps Ibuki, as Fuyuhiko gets to his feet. “Make sure you show me that costume! I want pictures of that plaid!”

~

Souda and Fuyuhiko head into the green room, where their red-haired classmate is fussing over a huge rack stuffed full of costumes. A lot of them are covered in feathers.

Mahiru turns around when she hears their footsteps, coat-hangers on both her arms while she tries to keep the outfits from touching the dusty floor.

“Oh, hi, Kuzuryuu!” she says, and beams at them. “Hi, Souda. Your outfits are over there.” She jerks her head to the right to indicate where they are, then turns back and busies herself with organizing the racks.

Fuyuhiko walks over to the rack she indicated, then stops, seeing two or three hangers with his name on the tag.

“Goddamn, I think that might be the ugliest fucking suit I’ve ever seen,” Souda says from behind him.

“If you want to badmouth your costume, feel free to iron it yourself!” Mahiru says sharply without turning around. Souda mutters something else under his breath, but doesn’t say anything after that.

Fuyuhiko can’t actually argue with him about the suit. Souda’s costume is made of thick, scratchy-looking fabric in the most godawful green-and-yellow plaid he’s ever seen in his life. Fuyuhiko’s own suit isn’t much better- he was expecting something pinstriped, maybe, black and white and not too bad- but no, his suit is neon blue and brown plaid. Fucking _neon blue plaid._

“Hey, Mahiru, where’d you even find this suit?” he asks her. “Also, what the fuck did I ever do to you?”

“Ha-ha. Now go put them on,” Mahiru replies dryly.

Fuyuhiko goes to pull his ugly suit off the rack, and that’s when he sees the rest of his outfit.

“Mahiru. What is this.”

“Holy shit,” says Souda, “is that what I think it is?”

Fuyuhiko reaches out and pulls down an honest to god maid’s apron. He holds it up to examine it- there’s an obscene amount of lacy frills around the edges- and then turns to Mahiru, holding it out like evidence of a crime.

“That’s your apron,” she says.

“I know it’s an apron,” Fuyuhiko snaps back at her. “What I want to know is what’s it doing on my rack?”

Mahiru crosses her arms. “Listen, that’s part of your costume and you’re gonna have to wear it.”

“The hell I am!-”

“No. You’re wearing it. You’re a gangster posing as a pastry chef. The apron’s traditionally part of your costume. It’s _comedic,_ Kuzuryuu.”

“Oh my god,” says Souda, looking like a kid on Christmas morning. “I can’t believe you actually gotta go on stage wearing that! Dude, you gotta go in front of Peko wearing that! The whole fuckin’ _school-”_   
Mahiru cuts him off with a pointed finger.

“You’re wearing one, too.”

The expression on Souda’s face looks more like a kid who just looked into his stocking and found coal.

Fuyuhiko thinks maybe there is a God after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so.  
> i'm going to be updating regularly again.  
> a quick recap for those of you that don't go back to reread and didn't see my updated author's notes from recently:  
> 1) i've gone back and edited the first few chapters somewhat heavily in areas. fixed stuff that was awkward or didn't feel right, etc. like maybe 1 through 7 so maybe check those out  
> 2) ofc just as i give fuyuhiko's sister a name dr3 decides "no fuck you". i might? go back and edit her name, i don't know. i'm thinking about replacing "yoshi" with "nat" so that i can still work with the hated nickname thing
> 
> and that was it for the latest chapter! it would have been nice if hinata was having a good day in this chapter to distract everyone from the pain of despair arc episode 5, but...oops,, bad timing lmao??  
> our boy will be feeling better soon don't you worry


	27. Hinata/Komaeda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it is i,, back again,, keeping my promises of a quick update for once  
> i'm on vacation in canada where my phone doesn't work without wifi, and we're camping, and the only thing i can do to occupy myself is knit and write. so far i've produced half a purple scarf for my boyfriend, and this chapter. say thanks to verizon, folks  
> also there's a komaeda POV in this chapter for the very first time!! the crowd gasps

Hinata stares at his script, reciting the lines over and over in his head until they start losing their meaning. The last twenty minutes might have been the most awkward twenty minutes of his entire life, and unfortunately, drilling his lines into his head doesn’t seem to be helping any to distract him.

The good news: he's been practicing Cold Feets at home with a pair of Naegi’s sister's old tap shoes- he felt a little guilty accepting them from Naegi, but they fit perfectly on his feet, and his practice at home thankfully made it so that he was able to at least keep up with Naegi during their tap dance. So he didn’t embarrass himself onstage, which is good.

The bad news: the tension between him and Komaeda was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. The awkward tension, not the good kind. Naegi had  _ actually asked  _ him when they stopped rehearsing if he and Komaeda were fighting. If it was so obvious that even Naegi picked up on it, Hinata knows it’s bad.

Two days ago, when he was sitting in the backseat of the van with Fuyuhiko and his sister trading insults across the armrests, he’d intended to call Komaeda when he got home. He really had! It just somehow...didn't work out like that.

~

“You’re g-going to talk to him over the weekend, right?” Mikan asked him, eyebrows drawn together as though it was  _ her _ friendship with Komaeda that would be affected if he didn’t. 

Hinata stared at the floor of the car, feeling like his tongue was sticking in his mouth. 

“Yeah,” he said finally. “I will.” 

And then he got home. And he sat on his bed and stared at the phone in his hand. And then he lay down, setting it on the nightstand. Still looking at it, but not really having the courage to dial the number.

The phone had even buzzed once or twice, signaling incoming calls. He didn't touch it. There wasn't exactly a clear reason why. Hinata just couldn't imagine reaching out and answering the call, or what he would say if he did.

He counted. It rang five times while he was laying there.

At some point Hinata must have fallen asleep, because it was morning when he opened his eyes again.

The show had run late, as shows do, and he guessed they must have dropped him off at around ten o’clock. He reached out and finally picked up the phone, checking the missed calls.

One from Komaeda. 10:45 P.M.

A second one from Komaeda. 10:46 P.M.

One from Chiaki, 11:15 P.M. Probably after she heard about what happened from her girlfriend.

One from Asahina at 11:23 P.M., surprisingly enough. He wasn't even aware she had his number, although considering Komaeda rode home in her car, maybe he’d given it to her…?

Another from Chiaki. 11:45 P.M.

And one more from Komaeda, 9:26 A.M.

A sour feeling started up in the pit of Hinata’s stomach. He didn't know why Asahina was calling him, but he knew for sure why Chiaki and Komaeda had been trying to call him. Chiaki might have just assumed he was asleep, but Hinata knew Komaeda. He knew enough to guess exactly what the other boy had been doing last night- pacing his room, talking to Mikan or maybe Chiaki, pacing his room some more, 

trying to call Hinata, wondering why he wasn't picking up, probably thinking it was his fault and that Hinata wasn’t interested in him at all...something like that.

If Komaeda hadn't thought that before, Hinata bet he did this morning. 

_ How are you going to face him in two days...or should I say tomorrow?  _ a voice said in his head. It sounded suspiciously like Chiaki’s.

_ How are you going to look him in the eye after you kissed him? After you kissed him  _ first _ , no less, and then run away and ignored him for the rest of the night?  _

Hinata groaned and smothered his head in his own pillow.

~

And he hadn't done anything. He went to school, not hanging out with Chiaki and Komaeda in the courtyard before class like he normally did. He locked eyes with Asahina from across the green, where she was sitting against a wall with Sakura, and when she jumped up from her spot, waving, Hinata waved back and pretended he didn't know she wanted to talk to him and ran inside the school building.

If he’d seen her at all, Chiaki would have told him that avoiding everyone wouldn't help things, and she would have been right, like always. But Hinata didn’t see her. He didn't have class with her that day, and he didn't sit with her and Komaeda and Mikan at lunch (he didn't eat lunch at all, just sat in his classroom with Ms. Yukizome casting worried glances at him until the period ended). So he never heard Chiaki’s advice.

Which is why the Hinata of now is severely regretting his decisions.

He can feel Chiaki’s eyes on him from the soundboard, and it might just be paranoia but he’s pretty sure Komaeda is staring at him too. He wouldn't blame either of them- Chiaki probably knows what happened because she heard it from Mikan, who probably heard it from Komaeda, and who knows what  _ he’s  _ thinking? He probably thinks Hinata’s tired of him or something self-deprecating like that, but then again maybe Hinata’s just too full of himself. Maybe Komaeda’s just thinking how cowardly Hinata is for kissing and running. Anybody else would. 

He’s so caught up in his own stupid angsty inner monologue that he doesn't even notice anyone approaching until their finger is jabbing into his shoulder.

He jumps and looks up. Fuyuhiko scowls down at him, crossing his arms.

Hinata knows he’s supposed to say hi, but all he can muster is a puzzled “...what are you  _ wearing?”  _

“Shut up!” Fuyuhiko bursts, face coloring like he’d forgotten about it.

They both look down at the ugly plaid suit, then back up.

“It’s my costume,” mutters Fuyuhiko, then jabs Hinata with one finger in the shoulder again. “Don’t go changing the subject!”

“There wasn't a su-”

“I  _ said _ don't go changing the subject! I came over here to check on  _ you,  _ idiot.” 

Hinata’s getting more confused by the second. “...What do you want, Fuyuhiko?”

“What did I just say?” he snaps, then sighs. “I, uh, saw you moping over here earlier. I don't know, just, it didn't seem like normal. I figured something probably happened over the weekend. So after Souda ‘n I went and got our costumes from Koizumi, she told us to come out and send somebody else down, so, you know, I thought I’d come and get you.” 

Hinata sighs and stands up, and that’s when he notices the fabric dangling from Fuyuhiko’s other hand.

“What's that?”

Fuyuhiko looks down and lifts it slowly. “Oh, right. Um.” He clears his throat. “I, uh, need you to tie this for me.”

Hinata reaches for it and feels lace on his palm.

“...What  _ is  _ this?” He lifts it to see better, and realizing it is in fact an apron does nothing to help what's becoming a constant state of confusion. 

“That is my costume and I just need it to get tied.”

“But it's an apron. Are you wearing an apron, then?”

“I swear to god, don’t make me say it,” hisses Fuyuhiko, and Hinata sighs and indicates for him to turn around. 

“Why didn't you just ask Peko to do it?” he asks, pulling the strings together around the other boy’s back. “I bet she can tie a better knot than me.”

“I don't ask Peko to do everything,” Fuyuhiko mutters. “She’s not my mom! What, do you think she's my mom? Because she's not. She might be my girlfriend but I can do shit by myself, you know.”

“Except tie aprons?”

“Shut the fuck up.” Then Fuyuhiko sighs. “I just don't  _ want _ Peko to do everything, you know? I don't  _ want  _ her to treat me like she’s my mom.”

A pause. Hinata thinks he might be getting the hang of this knot.

“...So, you wanted  _ me  _ to treat you like I'm your mom?”

Fuyuhiko’s answer is flat. “You know, if you tie that fucking knot in less than ten seconds, I might just let you live.”

Hinata suddenly remembers how to tie knots.

~

“So what's up?” says Fuyuhiko as he leads Hinata into the green room, still decked out in suit and apron.

“What do you mean what's up?”

“You know what the fuck I mean. Why the hell are you walking around like you're god damn Eeyore? Is this about Komaeda or something?”

Hinata tries to cover up his guilty start by reaching for the outfit on the rack that's marked with his name. “Why do you just assume it has to do with Komaeda?”

Fuyuhiko scoffs. “Uh, maybe because last week you were on the couch in the dressing rooms swapping spit, and now you won't even look at him?”

Hinata’s cheeks are burning a little. “Do you have to say it like that?”

“Someone who just started dating doesn’t act like that. It's like, a rule of teenage love. You have to be attached at the hip for at least two weeks.”

“Whatever,” Hinata retorts. “I'm going to go put on my costume.”

“Wait!” Fuyuhiko makes a grab for his arm as Hinata turns to push open the door to the hallway and bangs right into Mahiru Koizumi, carrying a bucket of clothespins.

“Crap!” she yells, as they scatter everywhere, then pins an accusatory glare on Hinata. “What was that for?”

“I'm sorry!” stammers Hinata, and drops to his knees to gather the clothespins, which makes the harsh expression on Mahiru’s face soften. She sighs and kneels down at the same time as Fuyuhiko, and together they scoop the pins into a pile and manage to get them back in the bucket.

Mahiru thanks them and heads for the costume closet. No sooner do her feet cross the threshold of the door than a hand grabs Hinata’s arm tightly.

“Look, I'm not letting you sneak off until you tell me what's going on,” says Fuyuhiko. He pulls lightly in the direction of the couch, and Hinata sighs and lets himself be sat down.

“I really don't know why you want to hear it so badly,” he says. “It's not really that interesting, it's just me being stupid and a coward and hiding from everybody.”

He tells Fuyuhiko what happened over the weekend, the missed phone calls and how he's avoided everybody all day, and how Komaeda probably either hates himself or Hinata or both right now. Fuyuhiko listens, surprisingly silent, with a neutral expression, and when it's done he nods slowly.

“Y’know, when I was younger I used to climb the trees in our backyard, the really huge ones.”

“Yeah?” says Hinata, not exactly sure where he's going with this.

“Yeah. It wasn't easy to find me if I climbed all the way to the top. I used to be up there for hours.”

There’s a few moments of silence.

“It was mostly because I got stuck,” Fuyuhiko admits. “But you know, I never used to want to admit it.”

“No?”

“No. Like, I'd be sitting there, looking down at the ground, and Peko would come out into the yard. And she’d always be able to see be up there, you know, no matter how much I was trying to stay still. And she’d say, ‘Do you need help?’, and I'd say no, and she’d say ‘Are you stuck?’ and I’d say no, and she’d say, ‘Yes you are,’ and we both knew I wasn’t getting down unless she came and got me.

“She wouldn't climb up to help unless I admitted I was stuck, though. And I didn't want to, of course. The first time that happened, I wouldn’t say it at all. We literally sat there for hours, like, the sky was starting to turn red. And then finally she gave up and went back inside and I had to climb down by myself.”

Hinata furrows his eyebrows. “So, was that like, the story of how you learned to climb down without her?” 

Fuyuhiko laughs. “Nah. I fell fifteen feet and broke my ankle.”

“Oh.”

“And the thing was, I wasn't even proud of myself,” Fuyuhiko continues. “Like, I thought at least I'd be able to say I did it without having to admit I was stuck and get carried down. But after I did that, it didn’t feel good at all. See, I realized I actually  _ wanted  _ to get carried down. You know? I liked it. I wanted her to tease me about getting stuck in a tree, and then I’d pretend to be mad about it and we’d both go inside and drink lemonade and watch TV or something. I liked it a lot better than missing dinner because I was stuck in a tree, and then getting scrapes on my shins and the palms of my hands and laying awake at night because they were stinging.”

“So…?” Hinata says not seeing a clear end to the story.

Fuyuhiko screws up his nose. “So, what? So, the next time I got stuck in a tree I said yes when she asked me if I needed help. And she climbed up and got me, and we ended up on the couch eating ice cream and watching a movie. And it was good, because it was Peko and I liked being with her more than I liked not admitting I was wrong.”

“Is this some kind of, like, metaphor for me and Komaeda?” asks Hinata, still confused.

Fuyuhiko scowls and socks him in the arm.

“Ow! Fuck!”

“Does everything have to have meaning with you?” Fuyuhiko says. “Maybe it was just a fuckin’ story to make you feel better, ever think of that? Maybe a kid stuck in a tree is literally just a kid stuck in a tree. God, you sound like my fuckin’ English teacher. Holden Caulfield isn't a fucking metaphor either!”

“Oh,” says Hinata slowly, a little unsure of how he set Fuyuhiko off but hoping to avoid further conflict. “Well, uh. It did make me feel better. Thanks.”

Fuyuhiko sighs. “Yeah, you're welcome.”

They sit in silence for another minute.

Finally Fuyuhiko claps Hinata on the shoulder, says, “You better go get changed,” and gets up to leave, still wearing the apron over his plaid suit.

 

~

 

He doesn't get picked to get his costume from Koizumi next, but he figures he might as well go see if there's anything he can do to help her in the green room anyway. Sewing isn't one of his strong suits, but he might be able to help label costumes and organize the racks? He’s just decided on this course of action and started to cross backstage when somebody clears their throat.

“Hey, Komaeda.”

Komaeda looks. It’s Enoshima, perched on the stairs that go up to the catwalk, lounging with her legs crossed as though it's her personal throne and not a set of stairs.

“Come here, Ko,” she says, grinning with sharp teeth at him from behind her cat-eye sunglasses, and pats a spot next to her. One step down, he notes. 

“I was going to see if Koizumi needed any help,” he says, pointing his thumb over his shoulder like it’ll make a difference. 

Enoshima huffs, and Komaeda can tell she's rolling her eyes behind those sunglasses. 

“Koizumi can handle the fuckin’ costumes on her own for five more minutes. Sit.”

Komaeda sits.

“So what's the deal with you and spiky-hair?” says Enoshima, and although they’re both facing the same direction he can smell the sharp tang of bubblegum on her breath. She blows a bubble the size of his fist and cracks it, as if to prove his point. 

“What do you mean, exactly?” says Komaeda, disinterested in the gossip game and hoping she might let him leave.

No such luck. “You know what I mean, Nagito. I know you know. Cuz’ I know about everything.” She pops another bubble.

“Don’t know why you're so torn up over it, though. Not like you fucked him or anything, did you?”

Komaeda starts a little, although he should really be used to Enoshima’s bluntness by now. 

“No! I didn’t- we didn't do that.” 

“‘Course you didn't,” she says, sounding faintly bored. “The problem with you, Nagito Komaeda, is you don't know how to have fun. Maybe  _ that's _ why Hinata didn’t call you!”

Komaeda starts- again. “How did-” 

He cuts himself off, not even bothering to finish the sentence. They both know what she’d say;  _ “Cuz’ I know about everything.” _

Enoshima laughs. Her stupid, mocking laugh. “This is just too much, you know? Here you are mooning like a lovestruck middle schooler over someone who doesn't give you the time of day!”

“Time of day,” mutters Komaeda. “That’s not true. We're friends.”

“Are you,” says Enoshima.  “How do you know he didn't just want into your pants?” 

“Because he  _ likes _ me,” Komaeda says stubbornly. “As a friend.”

“Suuure,” she drawls, stretching out the vowel sound like a rope of bubblegum between her fingers. “And that’s why he called you like he told Tsumiki he would.”

He doesn't even bother asking how she knows that this time. He just looks down.

“It’s hard to think about, isn’t it?” Enoshima says, in a tone that’s almost skirting the border of sympathetic. “About somebody only liking you for your looks? Nobody knows about that more than me.”

It’s funny, Komaeda thinks to himself,  how even when she's doing a bizarre imitation of comforting, she can turn everything into a bragging opportunity.

“Boys, they only want one thing,” Enoshima muses. “Isn’t that what everyone says? They just want to get in your pants, and when they find out you’re not easy, they just give you up and drop you like a hot potato.”

“Enoshima,” says Komaeda suddenly.

“Mmm?”

“You’re laying it on a bit thick.”

“Am I?” The sharp-toothed grin has returned. “Ah, Nagito’s enduring love for that boring Hinata is too strong to endure one little despair-inducing speech, isn't it?”

“It’s not love,” he says. “It's just hormones. That's what you say, right?”

“I say lots of things,” says Enoshima. “Could be I do say that. I bet you remember better than me.”

“Telling me he just wants into my pants isn’t really despair-inducing, either. I already know that's not true.”

“And like I said, sure it's not. Like I said, that’s why he bothered to call you.”

“Look, don't start that again-”

“Oh, but it isn't even as simple as not bothering to call, is it?” she says. “No, it's even better than that. He didn't just not call, he ignored you when  _ you _ called. He didn’t even answer when Nanami called, did he? He  _ never  _ ignores  _ her.” _

Komaeda says nothing.

“Funny, isn't it? He thinks you're boring, but he'll swoon over a girl who falls asleep standing up.”

“He doesn’t swoon over her. She has a girlfriend.”

“Oooh? Who's that?” Like Enoshima doesn't already know.

“Your ex.” 

“Mmm.” She doesn't sound like she believes him, either about Nanami and Tsumiki, or about Hinata, it's not clear.

“I think you just don't like him because he doesn’t do what you want,” Komaeda says, and Enoshima pretends as though she didn't hear.

After a moment of silence, she says, “So what are you going to do about it?”

“What? About what?”

“I was hoping I could talk you out of this and maybe set you up with Souda instead,” Enoshima sighs lightly. “Not that you're really suited for each other, but he’s such a closet case it would have been hilarious. Plus I’m getting tired of his obsession with Sonia- it might have made for a nice distraction. But,” here she sighs again, dramatically, “you're so head-over-heels for that spiky-haired idiot, you just won't listen to a word I say. Have it your way, then.

“But!” She levels a finger at him while blowing yet another bubble. “You need to make a better effort.”

“What do you mean?” It’s never a good idea to listen to Enoshima’s advice, but she probably won't let him leave until she's said her piece. 

“I told you. You don't know how to have fun.” Another bubble pops with another cracking noise. Komaeda is really getting sick of that gum. 

“You have to show them what they're missing. Be more exciting! That's how I do it!”

Komaeda allows a hint of sarcasm to creep into his tone. “It seems to me like Matsuda would be happy if you were a little  _ less  _ exciting.”

Enoshima scoffs, but doesn’t rise to the obvious bait. “We’re talking about  _ you _ here, Nagito.”

“Look, what’s the point of all this?” Komaeda’s getting tired of her talking in circles and his back’s starting to get sore from sitting on the step. Not to mention, her words are starting to make sense in a way he doesn’t like.

Enoshima gazes at him thoughtfully, her expression hard to read under the sunglasses. Finally she speaks up.

“Hinata’s in the music wing bathrooms right now, getting his costume on.”

“What?” Komaeda says, a little thrown by the sudden subject change.

“But,” she continues, as though he hadn't said anything, “the shirt Mahiru had picked for him isn’t going to work out. It's missing a button right in the middle, where he can’t hide it.”

“What are you talking about?”

Enoshima glares, expression frustrated by Komaeda’s inability to understand her point.

“His shirt,” she repeats, as though she's talking to a very small child. “Is missing. A button.”

She grabs his hand from where it’s hanging limp at his side. Her nails bite into his palm, but he doesn’t say anything as she deposits something small and closes his hand over it. He uncurls his fingers to see what it is.

A button. Bits of thread are still attached to the center, as though someone had yanked it from its place.

“Oh,” says Komaeda, staring at the button. “But...why did…?”

_ “Anyway,”  _ Enoshima continues, “his shirt is missing a button. Mahiru has an extra one for him in the closet with the other backups, but he doesn’t know that because he’s an idiot. And Mahiru isn’t around to tell him where to find it because about five minutes ago, Mukuro came by needing her help to track down a cigarette holder for the Chaperone in the props room. And that’s going to take them a while.

“So. If someone were to get his shirt out of the closet and  _ bring  _ it to him in the hallway, which will be empty, I’d imagine he would be grateful, and they would have a while before Nidai needs to rehearse anything else, which he won’t for a while. Because I need him to look over my revised idea for I Don’t Wanna Show Off.” Enoshima finishes her spiel, leans back against the stairs, and pats the binder resting next to her with a satisfied grin.

Komaeda stares at her.

After a moment, Enoshima raises her eyeglasses and arches one eyebrow. “Are you going or what?”

“I don’t know why you’re doing this,” he tells her. And he really doesn’t. Well...it sure  _ seems  _ as though she’s just doing this for him, but...is that even possible with Enoshima? He feels like one of the characters in the horror books he occasionally reads, the ones who make conveniently vague deals with malevolent entities and end up damned for eternity. Komaeda’s fairly sure Enoshima is mortal, but with her sharp teeth and the long blood-red nails she almost looks the part.

She gives him a lascivious grin. “Why I’m doing this? Do I really need a reason? I was bored. There’s your reason.”

Then she snaps into choreographer mode. “I can’t take Hinata’s stupid sad face for another god damn second. And he can normally barely concentrate on his choreography to  _ begin  _ with, so go out there and get your stupid problems over with before I go do it myself!”

She drops her sunglasses back onto the bridge of her nose and flips open her choreography book, a clear dismissal.

Komaeda stands up. He’s probably supposed to say something like _thanks, Enoshima,_ but instead he just leaves, casting one faintly confused glance over his shoulder as he opens the door.

~

“Oh, what the hell?” Hinata mutters, as his fingers go to do up the next button and find nothing.

He examines the buttonhole and then the empty space where a button had been at some point. After about five seconds, he sighs and accepts that this isn’t going to work.

He undoes the rest of the buttons and slides off the shirt, turning around to check in the mirror that at least the black formal pants fit correctly.

The bathroom door opens with a slight creak when he pushes it. Hinata sticks his head out and peers from side to side. The hallway is empty and school’s been out for about two hours, so, feeling confident, he gathers the discarded shirt and makes a beeline for the green room. 

The door opens before he reaches it, and assuming it’s Mahiru, Hinata holds up the shirt and starts, “Hey, this shirt is missing a button, so do you, like...have…”

He trails off. Komaeda blinks at him, looking frozen.

Komaeda’s eyes widen a little after a second and he looks down. It’s at that second that Hinata remembers he didn’t put his shirt back on.

_ I thought nobody else would see me except Mahiru!  _ he thinks, embarrassed, as though defending himself from some kind of invisible jury.

Komaeda clears his throat and holds out the bundle in his hands. “Um. Koizumi asked me to give you the extra shirt.”

“She did?” says Hinata, confused. He hadn’t even gotten the chance to ask. “Where is she?”

“She’ had to go help Mukuro Ikusaba look for a fake cigarette holder in the prop room,” Komaeda says quickly, and his face turns pink. Hinata thinks he just looked down again.

“Oh.”

After a second he remembers about the shirt and takes it from Komaeda’s outstretched hand.

Suddenly he finds himself thinking about what Fuyuhiko said to him earlier, and maybe he’s just looking for a distraction so he doesn’t have to think about how awkward this situation is, but that story is just starting to make sense. Maybe Fuyuhiko really was trying to tell him something, by telling him about how he liked being with Peko more than he liked not having to admit to being wrong. Whether the story was a metaphor or not, Hinata feels a little bit better than he did before.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” he says, before he can lose his nerve, and Komaeda’s eyes dart back up to his, a little surprised.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sorry,” Hinata repeats. “For not calling you over the weekend. I got scared and hid from everybody, and...that was really stupid.”

“It’s okay,” Komaeda says.

“It’s not. I shouldn’t have avoided you like that.”

“Do you still want to go on that date?” 

Hinata blinks, caught off-guard. “Huh?”

Komaeda takes a step closer. “Last Saturday. You asked me if I wanted to see a movie with you.”

“Oh, yeah.” His mouth is dry. “Star Wars.”

“So...do you still want to…?

“Yeah.” Hinata nods, quickly. “Yeah, I do. If that’s okay.”

The edges of Komaeda’s mouth curl upwards into a hesitant grin. “Okay, then. I’m looking forward to it.”

He takes another step, and another, until his shoes are touching Hinata’s. And then he leans forward, and they’re kissing again.

_ This isn’t bad, _ Hinata thinks.  _ This isn’t bad at all. _ He puts his hands on Komaeda’s hips, careful not to repeat last Saturday’s mistake, and Komaeda’s fingers end up at the back of his head, tangled in his hair. 

They’re moving, suddenly, and come to a jarring stop against the wall. 

“I love you,” mumbles Komaeda, suddenly. 

Hinata squeezes him tighter, almost on instinct. He stops and opens his eyes, and Komaeda’s head is against the wall. He’s looking at Hinata, waiting for a reaction, looking flustered and embarrassed.

There’s really only one thing he can think of to say.

“I love you too,” he says, feeling incredibly sappy. Komaeda smiles him again and tugs on his hair, pulling him forward.

Hinata allows himself to be pulled back in for another kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay,, listen,, l i sten  
> last thursday, despair arc ruined me, and today, future arc RUINED me. there was no way i was ending this chapter on anything less than a got damn happy moment for hinata, it's statistically impossible. let him live, kodaka,,, don't give me that "this is so boring" bullshit i will literally start crying  
> anyway let's all see what happens on thursday, and if i survive despair arc episode six, look forward to the next update!  
> see ya lovelies


	28. A Group Chat (Mostly Hinata)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's been a month...how are yall  
> i don't have much to say other than school has been kicking my ass...also, this is really more of a pseudo-chapter bc it's just a log of a skype chat lmao...i hit a brick wall so i took the easy way out and wrote a group chat conversation. hope it's good though!!  
> oh you know what? how about that CANON GAY JUZO SAKAKURA IN DR3 let's get a round of applause for THAT?? enjoy this equally gay chapter

**~**

**Skype Chat: WHAT TEAM (Participants: mysticdonut, iwillcrushyou, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, jouda (jean souda), Guitar Heroine, Capone Jr.)**

**-**

**_Capone Jr. has added hinatajuice to this conversation._ **

  
**Capone Jr.:** Say hi to Hinata everybody

  
**mysticdonut:**!!! a new member!!!!!!!!

  
**hinatajuice:** hey guys

  
**iwillcrushyou:** Hello, Hinata

  
**hinatajuice:** hi, ...??

  
**iwillcrushyou:** Sakura

  
**hinatajuice:** hi sakura

  
**mysticdonut:** and i'm asahina!!! \^.^/

  
**jouda (jean souda):** :O

  
**jouda (jean souda):** my soul friend!

  
**jouda (jean souda):** what is UP yo

  
**Guitar Heroine:** WAIT HINATAS HERE OMF

  
**hinatajuice:** yeah i'm here lmfao it's nice to talk to you guys

  
**mysticdonut:** wait wheres ishi?? hes gonna miss this!! is he online???

  
**Guitar Heroine:** I SUMMON KIYOTAKA BY THE POWER OF SPIKY EYEBROWS

  
**Capone Jr.:** Stop typing in all caps it hurts my eyes

  
**Guitar Heroine:** KAZOO THAT DOESNT MAKE ANY SENSE!!!

  
**Capone Jr.:** Fine. _Please_ stop typing in all caps

  
**Guitar Heroine:** ok

_(Guitar Heroine has changed name to guitar heroine)_

  
**mysticdonut:** omf,,

  
**jouda (jean souda):** lmfaooo

  
**Capone Jr.:** Don't encourage her. God

  
**hinatajuice:** okay what is even happening here

  
**iwillcrushyou:** I admit I'm having difficulty following this conversation

  
**mysticdonut:** well i dont think ibukis summoning chant worked 

  
**mysticdonut:** brb im gonna text ishimaru!!

_(mysticdonut has logged out)_

  
**hinatajuice:** so like what is this chat even for

  
**hinatajuice:** kuzuryuu never told me

  
**jouda (jean souda:)** this is a group chat for everybody that hangs out in the weights room before school

  
**hinatajuice:** you work out??

  
**jouda (jean souda):** UM

  
**jouda (jean souda):**  ??? ofc i work out?? how else am i supposed to maintain this six pack??

  
**hinatajuice:**...right sorry

  
**Capone Jr.:** Bullshit Souda you have a six pack of pudding cups

  
**jouda (jean souda):** THAT IS _NOT_ TRUE 

  
**jouda (jean souda):**  hinata don't listen to him i'm jacked okay

  
**guitar heroine:** girls girls ur both pretty

  
**Capone Jr.:** Oh shut up

  
**guitar heroine:** >:p

  
**hinatajuice:** jfc she's right you two are ridiculous

  
**jouda (jean souda):** wtf you're supposed to back me up here hinata!! we're soul friends!!

  
**Capone Jr.:** Or you know he could back _me_ up here since we're bros

  
**Capone Jr.:** Practically blood brothers tbh

  
**hinatajuice:**...you know what i am NOT getting into this argument

  
**guitar heroine:** smart thinking hinata

  
**guitar heroine:** staying alive

_(mysticdonut has logged in)_

  
**mysticdonut:** ok i'm back now

  
**mysticdonut:** i called ishimaru like three times and he finally picked up!! he's getting on his computer soon

  
**hinatajuice:** couldn't he just use his phone?

  
**iwillcrushyou:** Ishimaru has a flip phone

  
**hinatajuice:** oh

  
**guitar heroine:** i still cant believe it!!!

  
**guitar heroine:** a couple of months ago we were walking downtown and he dropped his phone and it fell into the street and a truck ran over it

  
**guitar heroine:** i thought he was gonna cry but we picked it up and it wasnt even cracked!! like what!!!

  
**mysticdonut:** omf i remember that

  
**hinatajuice:** what? you're fucking with me

_(Kiyotaka Ishimaru has logged in)_

  
**Kiyotaka Ishimaru:** Language, Hinata!

  
**guitar heroine:** OMF YOU SUMMON HIM BY SWEARING

  
**guitar heroine:** WHY DIDNT I THINK OF THAT 

  
**mysticdonut:** right on time ishi! ^^

  
**Kiyotaka Ishimaru:** Hello, Asahina!

  
**Kiyotaka Ishimaru:** And no, they were not kidding. My phone really did get run over by a truck.

  
**Capone Jr.:** Jfc dude when are you gonna get a new one

  
**Kiyotaka Ishimaru:** Well... I asked for one for Christmas, but it wasn't really in my parents' affordable price range.

  
**Kiyotaka Ishimaru:** Maybe next year?

  
**Capone Jr.:**.............

  
**iwillcrushyou:** Now that everyone is here, should we decide on a time for tomorrow morning

  
**Kiyotaka Ishimaru:** Good idea, Sakura!

  
**guitar heroine:** idk does 6:30 work for everybody?

  
**Capone Jr.:** Yeah sure

  
**jouda (jean souda):** works for me

  
**guitar heroine:** me too!!!

  
**hinatajuice:** what the FUCK that's so early

  
**Kiyotaka Ishimaru:** _Language,_ Hinata!

  
**hinatajuice:** sorry

  
**hinatajuice:** so is this everybody that's coming?

  
**Kiyotaka Ishimaru:** No, Mondo usually comes to the weight room with me. But his phone has been broken for two months.

  
**jouda (jean souda)** akane's always there but i don't think she has a phone either

  
**iwillcrushyou:** I believe Nidai spends his mornings there as well. So you will most likely run into them there if you come tomorrow.

  
**Capone Jr.:** Which you will

  
**Capone Jr.:** That's what I added you to this chat for so you better not let me down...

  
**hinatajuice:** okay...i'm gonna come...

  
**guitar heroine:** omg kazoo is so intimidating

  
**mysticdonut:** stop bullying hinata!! he can come if he wants :P

  
**hinatajuice:** yeah i'll meet you guys there tomorrow

  
**guitar heroine:** great!!!! see ya

  
**Kiyotaka Ishimaru:** I need to log off now. I have precalculus homework.

  
**Kiyotaka Ishimaru:** But! I will see you all in the morning! Let's work hard together!!

_(Kiyotaka Ishimaru has logged out)_

  
**jouda (jean souda):** omfg...does he have to say that every time he logs out...

  
**mysticdonut:** don't make fun of him!! >:(

  
**mysticdonut:** i'm gonna kick your ass at weight lifting tomorrow, souda!!!

_(mysticdonut has logged out)_

  
**iwillcrushyou:** Rest in peace, Souda

  
**jouda (jean souda):** :O

  
**jouda (jean souda):** if she-hulk is saying it i know it's serious...

  
**guitar heroine:** >:/ souda...

  
**iwillcrushyou:**...If Asahina does not kill you, I will not mind stepping in to finish it for her.

_(iwillcrushyou has logged out)_

  
**hinatajuice:** oh m y god

  
**Capone Jr.:** Souda how are you still alive honestly

  
**jouda (jean souda):** well...i better get a good night's sleep so i can run faster tomorrow...

  
**jouda (jean souda):** night yall

_(jouda (jean souda) has logged out)_

  
**guitar heroine:**  well anywayi can't wait for hinata to come tomorrow!! you're gonna love it we play broadway soundtracks and ishimaru and asahina bring breakfast sometimes

  
**Capone Jr.:** It's kinda funny actually

  
**Capone Jr.:** He tries to bring healthy shit like fruit and granola bars and she always just shows up with a box of Dunkin Donuts

  
**Capone Jr.:** They're always really good though so

  
**guitar heroine:** theyre delicious!!! shes like a golden goddess of donut delicacy and every donut she touches becomes a sunburst of flavor

  
**guitar heroine:** ooooo did you hear ibuki get all poetic??

  
**guitar heroine:** actually those would make sweet song lyrics!! i'm gonna write this down!! gnight

_(guitar heroine has logged out)_

  
**hinatajuice:** so uh

  
**hinatajuice:** thanks for adding me to the group, kuzuryuu

  
**Capone Jr.:** No problem. You're looking super tired lately. I guess I just thought about it and I was like hey that would be cool...

  
**hinatajuice:** no seriously. thanks. you've been doing tons of nice stuff for me lately.

  
**Capone Jr.:** Heh.

  
**Capone Jr.:** If you tell anybody I'm getting soft or something, I'll kill you

  
**hinatajuice:** you realize everybody in this chat can see the logs when they get back on

  
**Capone Jr.:**..........

  
**Capone Jr.:** Irrelevant. Night

  
**hinatajuice:** good night

_(Capone Jr. has logged out)_

_(hinatajuice has logged out)_

 

 

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> remember to rate the chapter, comment the chapter, and subscribe if you wanna see more chapters similar to this one. see ya

**Author's Note:**

> if you read this much i'd love for you to leave a kudos or a comment and tell me what you like/don't like so far! also i love you cries
> 
> i decided to make nanami and fujisaki siblings bc in sdr2 nanami says alter ego is her brother and alter ego is basically the same as fujisaki so??? they have different last names but then so do junko and mukuro sO
> 
> EDIT: in this fic, chihiro is AFAB and genderfluid. (AFAB because well tbh, as a trans nb person, DR's gender reveal subplot sucks, and chihiro's situation in the game would never happen in real life, so please don't jump on me for not sticking to canon)   
> only nanami, ishimaru, and mondo know about it as of the beginning of the fic, so when anyone else narrates they use she/her pronouns. for example since hinata is narrating in chapter 1 and he doesn't know, chihiro is referred to as female  
> just to clear stuff up


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